Protomen Backstory
by ailehpo
Summary: Based on the work of the band the Protomen. This is a prequel to act 2. How did Thomas Light know how to build a robot, what prompted Wily's lines to Emily in Father of Death etc. Warning: none of the characters I introduce are necessarily going to live. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Notes: Failing to figure out how to put author's notes in I'm forced to place them here, shows you how tech savvy I am. So random notes about this story. 1) It's my first _published_ story. There is no about question whether I'm going to keep writing. The question is whether I'll keep updating. That of course depends on reviews. 2) This is a prequel obviously. If your favorite character isn't his usual evil self, worry not. I have a wicked and devious plan to make him evil. 3) About AU, OC etc. I'm trying very hard to stay in canon, there are of course no guarantees. I add A LOT of stuff. You can decide for yourself if this qualifies as AU. None of my original characters are safe. In fact I fully plan for only the main 3 to be left standing when I'm done.

Where: an unnamed city

When: 28 years before 200X

Three houses stood together, a few streets away from the center of the city. In the backyard amidst the dying grass, in the shade of an old tree two teenagers stood; dressed neatly having just come from the jobs they'd been lucky to get at the beginning of that summer.

"I swear, if she makes me organize that shelf again, I'm quitting. Why can't she pick a filing system and stick with it?"

"Could be worse Em'," Albert Wily said, disregarding the dirt that was sure to be getting on his one good pair of pants as he climbed to the lowest branch of the tree in the Stanton's backyard.

Emily sighed as she realized that it could be much worse. She could have to keep the death records of the mining company and record her own father's death, as Albert had yesterday, and come home from work fighting back tears.

"Who's was it today?" she asked quietly.

"My uncle's," Albert replied as he twisted around to hang upside down on the branch, "they were in the same crew."

"I'm sorry." She whispered, wishing they could go back to the time when they would scramble all over the tree bickering, not stand under it bemoaning each others misfortune.

"What about you, Tom?" Albert called out to the young man crossing the backyard now. "What lovely task did you get to do today? Any more parades honoring the dead to show our town's resilience or whatever the mayor's thought of now?" Thomas Light had been the most fortunate of the three friends, getting a job in the mayor's office. The previous week he had organized a parade at the mayor's request, to try and boost morale and honor the victims of the most recent mining accident. In Albert's mind however it looked more like disgracing the dead; dragging the broken bodies of his father's crew through the streets and not allowing the families to bury their loved ones in peace.

"No," Tom said in a low voice, releasing a pent up breath, "I filled out warrants for the arrest of people who are delinquent on their taxes."

Albert's teasing face immediately gave way to a very somber one. All of them had been scrambling last month to pick up extra shifts in an effort to keep their families out of such a predicament. They'd all made it, but just barely.

"Filing, death records and taxes," Emily observed, "aren't we a happy bunch."

"What we need is some fun," Albert said as he twisted around and sat on the branch again.

"And what do you suggest-" Tom began, but he didn't get much farther. A resounding boom echoed through the streets of the city, followed by a completely unnecessary siren wailing from overhead.

The blood drained from both Emily and Tom's faces. Both of their fathers were working in the mines at that moment. Albert dropped down from the tree and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

"They'll be fine." He said in a low croak, hoping that he was right, "they've got to be ok."

They stood there, completely silent for another second; then took off running for the mine.


	2. Chapter 2

Notes: I had no intention of posting another chapter so soon after the first. Then I realized how _extremely _short the first chapter was. So I posted the second chapter, which of course is much shorter. So be it. If I haven't gotten your attention by now there's no point in continuing. If I get reviews I'll update.

A sizable crowd had gathered before they arrived. Women dressed in tattered and dirty dresses with children wrapped in little more than rags propped up on their hips and tottering behind them made up the majority of the group. A few other teenagers in clothes of varying quality and cleanliness were also among the masses.

The first survivors were just starting to surface, helped by a rescue party that'd started trying to reach them minutes after the cave in. Relieved wives and children ran forward to embrace the returning men and tend their injuries. The crowd thinned, but only slightly. The trio slowly edged it's way forward. Then the first of the corpses started being hauled up.

Henry Light's body was the first to be brought up. Tom's face went blank and his breathing accelerated. Emily started to reach for his shoulder, but then she saw the face of the next corpse.

Her father.

Dead.

She doubled over like she'd been hit in the stomach, gasping for breath as she tried to comprehend the loss. Thomas appeared not to notice, his eyes still glossed over and his face pale, but Albert hurried to her side; then the crying started. Before long she was sobbing into his shoulder, barely forming articulate words. "Dad," she croaked over and over, in a voice Albert could barely hear.

"I know," He whispered pulling her into a tighter hug, "I know."


	3. Chapter 3

Albert and Emily barely saw Thomas in the next two days. He needed his space, and he barely crossed Emily's mind, occupied as she was with the loss of her other parent. Her mother had died 2 years ago in an accident in the factory. Now she was left alone with her 5-year-old brother.

Three days after the accident the dead were buried. They'd been replaced by men desperate for a job in less than an hour three days before.

Henry Light had been the crew's leader and was buried first. Thomas stood in the rain by his grave alone. His mother had refused to come, still convinced that her husband was only late getting home from work; a misconception which was aided by the empty bottles lining her counter, which her son was at a loss to understand how she'd gotten a hold of it in the first place.

A few graves away Emily stood sobbing, supported by Albert, with her brother, Samuel, clinging to her leg. It was hopeless, she knew. She and her father had barely managed to survive even when taxes weren't due. There was no way she and Sam could hang on, they'd be gone before the end of the year. She'd given up, she didn't care. Sam could watch her cry, he wouldn't understand anyway. Albert held her up, lying as he whispered that she'd be ok. Finally she ran out of tears and the three of them walked home.

Thomas Light stood by his father's grave for a long time after the ceremony; his face undergoing a slow transformation. Starting in complete desperation, resolve formed in his eyes until finally he had the determined look of a man seeking revenge. He meandered home, deep in thought.

As he opened the door to his house he was overpowered by the stench of alcohol originating in the tiny kitchen that formed the front half of the house. There Nancy Light sat at a wooden table, a bottle in front of her and many more piled beside the sink behind her.

"Henry?" she asked as the door creaked in.

"No mom, it's me, Thomas."

"Where's your father?"

Thomas paused and looked her in the face. They'd already had this discussion countless times.

"He died mom."

"I won't have you telling these lies Thomas!"

"I'm not lying mother." Tom walked over to look out the window into the street. The view there wasn't much better.

"Your father is late again. I told him, he should have taken that job as a manager when they offered it. But what did he say to me?"

"Mr. O'Brien needed it more." Thomas whispered. If his dad had taken that job...

"That's right. That's what he says every time they offer him a promotion. Someone always needs it more. 'We can scrape by' he says, 'we'll make it.' Well I tell you Henry,"

But whatever Nancy was going to tell her late husband Thomas didn't stick around to hear. He walked out of the kitchen into his parent's bedroom. No one had been in there since Dad had died. Mom had to be paying for the alcohol somehow, where did she keep the money? He had to find it, she had to stop. He searched frantically, tearing apart his parents bedroom.

A few hours later he sat sobbing in the midst of tumbled dresser drawers, knotted sheets and clothes strewn across the floor. He hadn't found a thing; and from the kitchen he could hear his mother, still conversing with her dead husband.


	4. Chapter 4

Albert Wily's face became a common sight in the Stanton house over the next few weeks, and Samuel Stanton's presence in the Wily house was equally normal. When Albert's father had died he'd been left to take care of his grandmother. While she could not move out of her chair due to her old age, she refused to be idle. She was the first to suggest that Samuel "visit" her during the long hours Emily worked trying to scrape by. So Samuel walked across the yard to visit "Uncle" Albert's grandmother every day as his sister walked across the city to type, file and take notes for the head of one of the factories that dominated the skyline of this miserable city. Albert would walk him back home when Emily returned after dark, talk with her and make sure she ate something.

Crossing to the Light's house however, was much less frequent. Whenever Thomas saw one of his friends coming close to the house he hurried outside to greet them, and prevent them from entering, and consequently from seeing his mother surrounded by the empty bottles that had piled up on the counter. He refused the invitations to dinner that came when fortune smiled on one family, and extended none as fortune never smiled on him. He no longer went to speak with Albert and Emily after work, he no longer left the house except to work. When he wasn't working he was scouring the house to discover how his mother still managed to buy enough alcohol to keep her under the impression that her husband was alive. He searched each room three times over, and still never found a thing. He cleaned each bottle carefully before throwing it in the trash, engaging in endless nonsensical conversations with his mother while he did so, still he discovered nothing.

"Your father never came home last night." Nancy Light observed to her son, while sipping some ungodly liquid.

"Dad's dead, mom." Thomas said impatiently as he ripped a label off a bottle and turned to rinse it.

"You must think positively Thomas, just because he's a little late does not mean he's dead, even in this city."

"This city..." Thomas muttered angrily under his breath. He sniffed the bottle to see if he'd washed enough of the stink away. He wasn't concerned about the vagabonds that roamed the city seeing the bottle for what it was and what it meant; he was worried about Emily, who passed by their trash early every morning on her way to work. "This city is dead mother."

"Could have fooled me it's still got people like you in it."

"And a fat lot of good I'm doing it." He still had a sour taste in his mouth after filing the warrant for his neighbor' eviction yesterday. Granted it wasn't his signature on the bottom line, but she'd know. She'd know who'd filled it out, she'd see his handwriting and know. And he couldn't tell her, he wasn't allowed to tell her, at risk of losing his job. And he wasn't sure that he'd tell her even if he could. Dreading a thing made it all the worse.

"Reckon your father isn't coming home tonight either is he?"

Thomas sighed, then said quietly, "No mom, he's dead, he isn't ever coming back."

She looked dolefully at him over the top of the bottle. "He's comin' back Thomas. Don't give up hope on me now. I can hardly take care of myself, much less both of us if you give up hope."

The bottle Thomas was peeling the label from trembled in his hand. He dropped it into the trash without cleaning it. He took two steps towards the table, towards his mother, then forced himself to stop. He fought for control, as he walked around her towards the door, and clenched the door handle, his knuckles white. He stood there for a second on the brink between reckless and impossible. The city was hardly safe during daylight, much less at night. But to stay here... He couldn't do it without loosing control, and control was something he fought hard for these days. He couldn't afford to lose it, it would be impossible to regain. He wrenched the door open.

"Where do you think you're going Thomas Light?"

He heaved a huge sigh, "I'll be back later mother." Then he stepped outside and pulled the door shut with a snap behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

**notes: **The first chapter over 1,000 words, yay!

Emily opened the door for Albert and followed him into the house. After setting the mail on the table she reached for Samuel, sound asleep with his head on Albert's shoulder. Emily'd offered to carry him over herself, but Albert had refused to let her. She was ready to collapse and sleep just as soundly. Quietly she carried him into the room they shared and tucked the blankets of the bed around him. She came back into the kitchen and closed the bedroom door quietly behind her. Albert was already opening the cupboard, finding only a box of cereal he turned to the fridge, to find it empty and dark. He turned curiously to her.

"I unplugged it. I don't need it, and all it does is drive the electric bill up." She pulled an envelope from the stack on the table. Ripping it open she glanced at the number on the bottom of the page. "See? It's down from last month, it's still going to be impossible to pay... but." She held up her hands in a hopeless gesture. Albert shook his head and poured her a bowl of cereal.

"What do you eat for lunch?"

She looked at him incredulously.

He swallowed hard, "you don't eat lunch?" She shook her head slowly. "Emily." He drew her name out with exasperation and disbelief.

After a long moment of silence she spoke. "It's not fair to him." She gestured towards the bedroom door.

"Your not eating lunch?" Albert broke off trying to follow her logic.

"No, having to get up before dawn and not return until well after dark."

"It's not fair to you either. But what in this city is fair?"

"Absolutely nothing." She glowered at the cereal as if it had offended her somehow. Then without taking a bite she reached for the mail, Albert's hand stopped her.

"When is the last time you ate Em?"

She glared at him, then her gaze softened as she saw the genuine concern behind his eyes.

"I don't know." She gave up hiding her despair, and let the tears pool up around her eyes. "I don't know anything any more." She leaned forward with her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. "Except that I have to work, and work and pay this and pay that. And keep working, otherwise... I don't know what otherwise. I don't know... I don't know..." A tear fell from behind where her hands hid her face to the table.

Albert pulled his chair from across the table to sit next to her. "Em." He said softly, putting an arm around her. "Don't worry, you'll make it."

They sat like that for a while. Her crying, him holding her. Until she leaned back and looked at his face. Her own face was wreck, tears sliding down it still and her hair strewn across it. "You can't possibly be right." She whispered. "But then, you can't be wrong. If you are, how do I keep going?"

She looked at the pile of mail, the last bowl of cereal from the box, and back to Albert. "It never ends does it?" Then she reached for the mail, Albert releasing her and moving away slightly.

On top was the electric bill she'd already opened. Next was the water bill. She opened it to glance at the impossible number printed on the bottom and put it aside with the electric bill, a problem to worry about later. Under that was a letter from the local robber baron, informing her that she had not been chosen for the higher paying job she'd applied for. She set it on top of the pile of empty envelopes with as sigh. Then she picked up the letter from the bank.

A crease formed in her forehead as she picked it up, any letter from the bank was bad news these days. She slit the envelope and pulled out the eviction notice. Her face paled and she let the paper slip from her fingers. Albert picked it up and turned it over as she stood up quickly and ran to the Light's house. A second later he followed her.

Thomas saw them coming not a second too soon. He stepped out of the house as she came flying up the path trapping him against his own front door.

"You knew!" she screeched; her hands flying to her hair and pulling at it in a desperate gesture. She climbed the three steps to his front door and stood toe to toe with him on the stoop.

"You got the eviction notice?" he asked tiredly. He'd been waiting for this to happen all day. He'd watched her collect the mail and go inside. Then he counted the minutes until she came flying out the front door, Albert still following her.

"Yes I got the letter! You knew... you knew... it was your handwriting..." he placed a hand on her shoulder as her voice trailed off and she struggled to come to grips with the hard reality that Samuel would no longer have a home. Albert came up the walk then, his face every bit as contorted as Emily's. He wasn't only upset because Thomas had neglected to warn Emily, but also because of the sight of them so close together, with Thomas' hand on her shoulder.

"I knew, and if I'd told you they'd have fired me." His voice was quiet. He hated using that excuse. He knew that the one thing Emily found truly intolerable was her friends getting in trouble or putting themselves at risk for her sake. It had been that way since they'd been kids in grade school. On more than one occasion he or Albert, or both of them, had stood up for her and gotten in a fair amount of trouble as a result.

"I thought I was saving you worry. Heaven knows you have enough of it," he said softly, almost in a whisper.

Emily stared at him, not knowing what to think or feel. There was no hope now, no false comfort in nothing, no foolish fantasies. She was so lost in her own thought she didn't notice how intently both men were watching her.

"What am I going to do?" she whispered almost inaudibly, "What about Samuel?"

"You'll stay with us." Albert said firmly, closing the distance between him and the steps.

She turned to face him. "Of course I won't, you don't have room."

"We'll make room." he said stepping up onto the already crowded step and placing his hand on Emily's other shoulder.

"You'll be ok Em." Thomas said pulling her into an awkward one armed hug as Albert kept his hand firmly planted on Emily's shoulder. Tears slipped down Emily's face as she returned the gesture. She didn't notice Thomas watching Albert's face as he hugged her, and his surprise at finding jealousy painted across it.


	6. Chapter 6

**notes: **Please pardon some of the fluffiness in this chapter... and please review! Even if you only say hi I'll be happy.

Samuel danced up the steps to Uncle Albert's house carrying the small bag Emily had packed for him. He wasn't sure why they were moving all of a sudden, or why his sister seemed so sad about it, but he thought it was a wonderful adventure going to stay with their neighbors.

"I want to share a room with Uncle Albert." He declared as Emily and Albert entered the house behind him carrying the two boxes that held the sum of the Stanton's possessions, with the exception of the bed and chairs. Emily had asked Marie Wily if she had any use for another table, or anywhere to keep it for that matter. Receiving a negative answer in both categories, she'd sold it to a local flea market vender and given the meager profit to Marie, knowing that Albert would refuse to accept it.

"I don't think so." Emily said.

"Why not?" he pouted.

"Because you'd keep him awake all night with all the dancing you do in your sleep." she replied, ruffling his hair after she set her box down on the table.

"And besides," Albert said following her, "you don't want to sleep in the basement. It's dark, dank and stinky."

Emily looked up in surprise at those words. "But-" she began

"I thought you didn't like the basement." Samuel interrupted, voicing Emily's thoughts. Until his father had died Albert had slept in the basement, and hated every minute of it. While he was not pleased with the reason he could move upstairs, Albert had wasted no time moving into his father's old bedroom.

"I don't," Albert said kneeling to look Samuel in the eyes. "But I can hardly let a lovely lady like your sister sleep down there can I?" Those words, combined with his crooked smile, caused Samuel Stanton to break down in giggles.

"Does it really stink?" he asked between fits of laughter.

Albert's eyebrow leapt up, making his face all the more comical. "Why don't you go find out?" Samuel skipped down the stairs.

"You are not moving back to the basement because of me." Emily said the minute he was gone. "You hated sleeping down there."

"Which is exactly why I'm not letting you sleep down there." He caught her gaze and held it there. For a full minute they stood there, with him in the doorway to the bedroom in question, and her next to the front door.

"Fine." She said looking away, acutely aware that she'd just lost another battle of wills with Albert Wily.

He crossed the kitchen to the front door, "I'll go ask Thomas to help us move the bed." He was almost out the door when Emily's hand on his arm stopped him. He looked down to her face.

"Thank you," she whispered, before standing on tip-toe to kiss him on the cheek.

He held her gaze again, but this time he didn't want her to look away. He brushed the hair that had fallen across her face behind her ear. "Well," he whispered, "I couldn't let a lovely lady like you go without a roof over your head, now could I?"

A smile that had been missing for weeks tweaked the edges of her mouth. "Thank you," she said again, and kissed him once more before moving to unpack the boxes.


	7. Chapter 7

Thomas Light stopped in front of the door to his house, allowing himself a moment to collect himself. He'd found himself having to consciously shift his mindset between work and home lately. Work was ordered and there he was a quiet, efficient assistant; quick to pick up extra work and never sharing more than necessary. At home... he wasn't sure what to call this mess. He'd yet to find any stash of money, and his mother's condition worsened by the day. He hardly ever saw Albert or Emily and he could feel them drifting away from him, just when he truly needed their support. But he couldn't let them see what his father's death had done to his family, he could barely live with it himself, much less ask them to. He leaned his head against the door and took a deep breath. What a complete and utter mess the world was.

He was just starting to open the door when he heard footsteps behind him; Emily was coming down the street. He turned back toward her, pulling the door shut behind him, but not forcefully enough for it to latch. By now Emily was upon him and turning back to pull it shut seemed awkward. He hoped she wouldn't get close enough to see into the kitchen, and that his mother wouldn't decide to call out to them.

Naturally she decided to walk all the way up to the door to talk to him.

"Thomas!" she called in greeting, climbing the steps to the door. He turned so she would have her back to where the door was open in order to face him.

"Emily," he said returning the greeting, "how are things with Albert?" He was well aware how... friendly, she and Albert had become after the Stantons had moved in. He'd often seen them sitting together outside under the old tree late in the evening after she'd gotten home. Thanks to the lengthening days of summer it was still light enough for him to see their fingers woven together.

A smile twitched her lips at the mention of Albert. "Fine," she smiled, "Samuel thinks its enormous fun, living with the neighbors."

"I hear he and Marie are quite the troublemakers." he said chuckling.

Emily sighed, "Albert told you about their experiment with the laundry then?"

A week ago Emily had come home to find kitchen flooded and wet laundry all over the basement. Apparently Samuel and Marie had decided to do the washing for Emily. Samuel, being the smart and resourceful boy he was, thought that it was just silly to wash the clothes upstairs, carry the heavy wet laundry to dry in the yard, and haul it back in and down to the basement to be ironed. It made much more sense, he thought, to bring the clothes downstairs before they were wet, and carry water down the steps to wash them. Had his attempt at carrying the water down the steps succeeded, he would have used the clothesline that was in the basement for winter washing to dry the clothes.

"I still don't know how so much water got on the floor. Here, we got your mail by mistake." She held out a hand addressed envelope.

"Ah, thanks-" he began, but she was already on her way down the walk waving as she went. Which left Thomas staring at the door jam she'd been standing in front of.

And the two small cracks running across the grain of the wood.

And the small green triangle poking out of one.

He tucked the letter in his pocket, and pushed against the piece of wood between the two. It gave slightly, he reached inside and pulled a screwdriver out of a kitchen drawer, ignoring his mother's inquiries as he placed the tip of the screwdriver against the lower crack and pushed. The whole piece of wood fell out. Between the drywall of the kitchen and the frame of the door, and resting on a piece of wood someone had stuck in there for that very purpose, was more money than Thomas Light had ever seen in his life.


	8. Chapter 8

Emily Stanton practically danced up the steps to the house she was already thinking of as home. She opened the door and did a little spin she was so happy. She'd surprised Albert with her sudden and flamboyant entrance, but that didn't stop him from seizing the moment and stopping her spin with a kiss.

"What are we celebrating?" he asked when she'd recovered from the surprise.

"I was promoted!" She practically squealed before dancing into her and Samuel's bedroom to deposit her bag on the bed in a heap. "Where's Sam?"

"Marie took him to the park."

"But..."

"He spent all day taking the wheels off that bike in the basement and attaching them to a chair, just so they could go to the park."

Emily threw back her head and laughed for the first time in months. "He would!" The two continued laughing for a while before Albert asked about her promotion. They sat down and pulled out the stack of papers that was their record keeping to factor in Emily's new pay. They'd have enough to buy Samuel what he needed for school, get Marie the medicine she needed, and for the first time in months the two were both smiling. They were laughing, and making jokes, for a minute it seemed like the time before they'd all lost their fathers. Thomas wasn't there, and they were still just scraping by of course, but for the moment life seemed manageable.

Albert watched Emily's smile as they began to scrounge up some dinner. It lit up her face, and consequently lit up his. She was always worried these days, mostly about Samuel. Albert couldn't blame her, he worried about Sam too. The boy had lost both his parents and been evicted before he'd even started school, which wasn't exactly a good omen.

The smile that'd graced the kitchen while they made dinner died away as they sat to eat and look through the mail. At the bottom of the stack were three different letters from schools, asking if Sam would be enrolling that fall. Emily sighed as she set down the last one, the worry returning to her face.

"Em?" Albert asked, worried that there was more bad news.

She looked up to his concerned expression, and sighed again. "Just worried about Sam."

"He and Marie will be back soon, it's not that dark out yet..."

"About school actually," she interrupted. "I've got to choose one, and then get him all his supplies." She sighed again. "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm all he's got."

"He's got me too." Albert said, holding her eyes with his.

The smallest of smiles raised the corners of her mouth. "I know." Albert leaned over to land a kiss on her cheek, just as Sam and Marie came in the front door.

**note: **Fluffy, I know. I thought we needed a quick break before we got to Tom's, ahem, difficulties with his mother.


	9. Chapter 9

Thomas Light pulled the small bundle of cash out of the wall and turned toward his mother. She sat watching him very carefully, for once not taking a sip out of the bottle. He set the money on the table, closing the door behind him. Then he looked at his mother's face.

For an eternity and a day they stood there. Thomas' eyes begging for answers, and Nancy's glazed and unfocused. She knew something was wrong with this, but it took enormous effort for her to finally tack down the reason why.

"Your father was saving that for you." She finally said, her face lighting up as she remembered why Thomas was not supposed to find the money in the door. "He wanted to give it to you when you turned eighteen. Said it'd help you make something of yourself." She took another drink from the bottle.

"Said it was all you needed." She continued, rocking back and forth. "He said you had everything else. Brains, brawn, said you just needed something -_hiccup- _to help you get started."

"Guess you got it a little early." She mumbled, breaking away from Thomas' stare and returning to the bottle in earnest.

"I'll have to tell him when he gets home," she continued after a moment of silence. "Tell him that our clever son found his birthday present early." She continued rocking, but more slowly, and her words came with more difficulty. "He'll like that." She stopped for breath. "Our son, clever enough to find his hiding spot.

"Make sure you use it right Thomas Light. Help these people, make their lives a little better, they've waited a long time," She broke off for a minute, then took another drink, emptying the bottle.

"They've waited so long... so long for someone to help them." And with that Nancy Light collapsed into the pile of bottles on the table.


	10. Chapter 10

Albert and Emily might not have seen much of Thomas Light over the last few weeks; but that didn't stop them from running out the door when he appeared on their steps with tears on his face mumbling "mom" over and over.

Emily was the first one into the Light house. It took her about two seconds to realize what was going on. She was at Nancy Light's side before Albert and Thomas were in the front door, pulling her out of the stack of bottles to sit up in her chair. She placed a hand on Nancy's wrist and searched the room for a clock.

Albert and Thomas stopped in the doorway, watching Emily count. After a full minute of silence she slowly placed Nancy's hand on her lap and turned back to them shaking her head. Albert placed a hand on Tom's shoulder. Nancy Light had been as much a mother to him and Emily as their own mothers had been before they died.

"I'm sorry Tom," Emily said reaching for him.

He took two furious steps past her to stand across the table from his mother. "I'd just found it." His voice was low, as if he were about to cry. "I'd finally found a way to help you!" he screamed, causing Emily and Albert to jump. "I finally had a way to fix things." He pounded his fist into the table. "And then," he turned and shoved a chair out of his way, before coming around to the back of it and squeezing it so hard his knuckles turned white. He had to regain control, he could not lose control. _I am in control, I am in control, I am in... forget it._ "AND THEN YOU DIED!" he screamed at his inanimate mother. The chair shook beneath his hands. Emily and Albert retreated to a corner, neither willing to attract Thomas' attention. "Do you see now I was right? He's dead! He has been for months. And for months you've sat there and drank God knows what and talked to your dead husband as if nothing happened. While I was here, really alive, and I needed you, but all you could do was tell me..." And he let out a pent-up, wordless scream of frustration. "Tell me not to lose HOPE. What kind of hope can a person have when their father's dead and their mother," he walked forward to lean across the table now, "their mother is too drunk to even speak coherently half the time?" He ground his fist into the table, daring the body to come back at him with some drunken riddle that had been his life the last few months.

"THOMAS!" It took a minute for him to realize that Emily had yelled his name for the past few minutes as he screamed at his mother's body. He turned to see her standing with her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face.

"You are not solving any problems by wrecking the furniture. Sit down." She pointed at the chair he'd nearly ripped the back from.

Thomas looked back and forth between his mother surrounded by bottles, and Emily with a hand on one hip and the other pointing at the chair. Albert stood behind her, looking slightly amused by the sight of Emily ordering Thomas to sit down. He looked back to Emily's face, set and determined. Thomas sat down.

"See if there's any coffee in the house." She said to Albert before moving to clean off the table.

"Yes Ma'am." She shot him a glare before sweeping all the bottles off the table and into the trash. Then she turned to the bedroom, intent on laying Nancy Light in there for the time being.

"What happened here Tom?" The bedroom was a disheveled mess with dresser drawers and their contents heaped about the room, sheets more on the floor than on the bed and the closet doors flung open, it's contents spit out across the room.

"I knew she had to be buying the liquor somehow, I had to find the money." He sighed, ashamed. Ashamed of loosing control, ashamed of how he'd treated his parent's house, it really was falling apart he realized, and just the tiniest bit ashamed that his friends had to pull him out of this, this rage. This furious, rampant, torrent he'd let take over.

Emily fought her way into the bedroom, throwing the random items scattered across the floor into drawers and putting them back into the dresser. She gathered up the rest of the mess and stuffed it in the closet, forcing the doors shut. Then she carefully made the bed so there were no creases in the sheets and reverently spread out the old quilt that Thomas' grandmother had made over twenty years ago as her son's wedding gift.

Albert set a mug of coffee down in front Thomas before picking Nancy Light up and laying her on the perfectly made bed. He and Emily turned to leave the room, but Thomas was blocking their path.

He stood in the doorway staring at the figure on the bed, a hand on either side of the frame to hold himself up. A chill ran down Emily's spine as she realized that this was exactly how Henry Light had laid in the days before his funeral.

"She hasn't laid in that bed since Dad died." Thomas continued to stare at the bed, fighting for control again. Emily startled him when she placed a hand on his shoulder, he hadn't realized that she'd crossed the room.

"I'm sorry Tom." Tears ran down her cheeks as she reached to hug him again. His arms fell around her in return and finally, he let the tears stream down his face.


	11. Chapter 11

**notes: **Sorry about not posting yesterday, I'm trying to post on Fridays but I got wrapped up in another project.

She'd held on to him all day long, and at the moment Samuel was certain his sister thought he was going to disappear if she didn't squeeze him tight enough. They stood next to Marie, who sat in her newly remodeled chair, in front of Mrs. Light's grave. Uncle Albert and Thomas stood a little ways away talking, or maybe arguing, quietly. Emily had him propped up on her hip, and a tear ran down her face. Sam looked at the place where the priest had stood a few minutes ago. He remembered doing this for Dad, and he knew they had done this for Mom too, although he couldn't remember that.

"Emily?"

"Yes Sam?"

He leaned his head into her shoulder. "Are you going to go away like Mrs. Light?" he asked quietly.

Emily stiffened, surprised by the question. "No, Mrs. Light was very sick Sammy, I'm not sick."

"Are you going to die in an accident like Daddy?"

Emily sighed, "I don't know how I'll die Sam. No one does, but it won't be until you're all grown up I hope."

"Are you going to die because a bad man killed you, like Mrs. Wily?"

If Sam's original question had shocked Emily it was nothing compared to how this one affected her. A chill ran over her and she began to shake so hard she nearly dropped Sam. She looked over to see if Albert had heard him before answering.

"How do you know about that?" she asked forcing her voice level.

"He asked me where she was one day." Marie answered, startling Emily.

Emily turned towards her. "And you told him..."

"I wasn't going to lie to him." Marie stated simply.

Emily took a careful deep breath. Then she took another. Sam was still waiting for an answer.

"I don't know Sam, but I hope not. Now listen to me." She looked right into his eyes, holding the 5 year old's attention for once. "We don't talk about that ok? Albert gets very... sad when we do." _Sad_ might not have been the exact word to describe Albert when he remembered of how his mother died; _angry_ might have been right, _dangerous _was probably the most accurate term. "So do not say anything about Mrs. Wily alright?"

Sam nodded, then wiggled around in her arms. "Can I get down now?"

"Stay close to Marie alright?" She set him down and turned to look at Albert and Tom standing a little ways apart from the group at the foot of the grave. The same chill ran down her as she watched them stand next to each other arguing. She shrugged her shoulders trying to dispel it as they began walking towards her.

Two tear tracks ran down Tom's face, and he had his hands shoved in his pockets. His left hand brushed over the pages of the letter Emily had delivered to his house a few days ago. The letter from his uncle. The uncle he didn't know he had.

He sighed for the umpteenth time that day. Emily, mistaking his sigh for sorrow, not world-weariness, gave him his fifteenth hug of the day.

"I'm sorry Tom," she whispered in his ear.

He sighed again, he wasn't sure what that meant anymore. "Come over with Albert later?" he whispered back.

"You just have to ask."


	12. Chapter 12

**notes: **New method of remembering to put up a new chapter on Fridays: do it right away in the morning. Or maybe I'm just trying to avoid having to do my homework...

After Sam was asleep Albert and Emily set out for Thomas'.

"What were you and Tom arguing about?" Emily asked the minute the door behind them.

Albert huffed angrily, "you're about to find out."

Emily studied his face, then decided that she'd have to wait for Thomas to tell her.

A few minutes later they were in the Lights' kitchen. Emily sat at the table looking curious but worried, Albert leaned on the back legs of his chair against the wall, the look on his face was like a storm waiting to break, and Tom stood against the sink, for all the world feeling like the harbinger of doom. For several awkward moments they sat in silence. Finally Tom gave up trying to phrase his words nicely.

"I'm leaving."

"Well," Albert cut in, "that's up for debate."

"No, it's not."

"actually"

"Can we decide if it's up for debate _after_ I know what's going on?" Emily interrupted.

"Yes can we?" Tom spat at Albert, who returned to fuming in his chair.

"The letter you delivered to me the other day was from my uncle."

"You have an uncle?" she cut in.

"Actually he didn't know he had an uncle until he got the letter, which has to make you wonder -"

"_Anyway_-" Emily cut in again. "The letter was from your uncle, and..."

"The company has to send a letter of regret to all known relatives when they die on the job."

"Wouldn't you have known about him getting one then?" She turned to Albert.

"You think I was really paying that much attention at that point? It was the fourth death of someone close to me that I had to record in that book -"

"Okay! Tom's uncle found out that his brother was dead and decided to send Tom a letter, and now you say your leaving because?"

"Because he asked him to Em!" Albert was on his feet now, "Tom hasn't heard from him, or even of him, once in his life, but one letter and he's ready to leave the city -"

"Albert!" Emily barked sharply, staring him down. He dropped back to his chair. "I would like to hear it from Tom. After he tells me what's going on you may rant all you like."

Furious silence reigned in the room for a minute before Tom continued.

"My dad was saving money to give me when I turned eighteen. He said it was all I needed to get going in life, but," he ignored Albert's furious sigh, "he was wrong. I'm definitely not ready to go out and start a life, especially if I want to get anywhere." _especially if I want to help this city. _He thought, remembering his mom's words. "He's offering to take me in, to teach me things I can't learn here."

"But you can learn them in another city." Emily's voice made it apparent that she was beginning to side with Albert.

"I'll come back," he looked from the face of one friend to another, ending on Emily. "I promise."

Emily's mouth twisted as she contemplated the dilemma. No one who left the city ever came back, and they were rarely heard from. If Tom's uncle lived in a different city it wasn't all that surprising that they'd never heard of him. The cities tended to ignore each other, and people seldom left the city they were born in. Albert and Tom waited to see what she said. Finally she released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"It's not my choice Tom."

"Emily!" Albert said, exasperated. "He's never heard of him before this -"

"That's something he'll have to take into account then. This is not my decision Albert. If Tom wants to leave then he can. If you had a chance to escape this mess wouldn't you?"

Albert was struck by the question for a moment. "It'd depend on what you thought," he finally decided.

The kitchen was quiet again. "That matters to me too Em," Tom said. "I might get the last say," Tom glared at Albert as he said that, "but I want to know what you think before I decide." He turned his attention back to Emily.

"Tom there must be a reason you've never heard about him." She looked straight at him as she spoke. "For all we know he saw your dad's name in the newspaper and is pretending he's your uncle."

"You wouldn't think that if you read his letter."

Emily's eyebrows shot up. "That's for you to decide. You have to look at what could happen, the best, the worst and everything in between, and what you know will happen if you stay here."

Tom nodded for a moment. "What do you think is the worst that could happen?"

"Whoever sent you this letter isn't your uncle and I never see Thomas Light again."

Tom swallowed hard, "the best?"

"You go and learn how to save the world."


	13. Chapter 13

**notes: **Still avoiding the homework... works out for you guys though.

Tension was high in the Wily house over the next few days. Emily refused to tell Tom whether she thought he should go, but she did say she didn't want him to go. She was walking a fine line between the two men. While she was not disagreeing with Albert it was the first confrontation they'd really had since she and Sam had moved in.

"You don't think he should go, so why don't you tell him?" Albert demanded as he set a stack of dishes next to the sink Emily was filling with soapy water.

"It's not my decision Albert," she said for the millionth time that day.

"I'm not saying you should tell him what to do, you should tell him what you think. He's asked for your opinion. Tell him!"

"He's asked for my opinion but that doesn't necessarily mean he wants it." She snapped back scrubbing a plate much harder then necessary.

"What does that mean?"

"What I say will make his decision. It's not my decision so I will keep my mouth shut."

"But you think he shouldn't go."

"Who am I to say what he should and shouldn't do?" The two were glaring at each other now.

Albert took a deep breath and moved back to the table to collect more dirty dishes.

"We both know that he shouldn't go," he started.

"No we do not. We both think it would be a bad idea for him to go, but we do not know that it is the wrong decision."

Albert made a frustrated noise. "Fine, we don't _know _that it be the wrong decision, but we're pretty sure. The two of us agreeing has to hold some significance, if we both think it's a bad idea..."

"It's still Tom's decision. If the whole city thought it was a bad idea it'd still be Tom's decision."

"Which he's asked for help making."

"I've offered all the help I can."

"You've told him what you want him to do."

"I've also pointed out concerns and possibilities, now he has to decide."

"You could sway his decision, make sure he does what you want him to do, what we both know is a good decision." Albert set down a handful of cups on the counter.

"I don't want to!" She turned toward him suddenly, her soapy hands flying out of the sink and spreading bubbles everywhere. "And for the hundredth time we don't know that staying is a good decision, and we don't know that going is a bad one. Even if we had a crystal ball we couldn't know." She shot him a glare before turning back to furiously scrubbing the plates.

Albert was quiet for a minute. "I'm confused," he finally said.

"About what?" Emily demanded still fuming.

"If we had a crystal ball we could see the future, assuming that you can see the future in crystal balls, anyhow, if we could see the future why couldn't we know what is the right decision?"

Emily sighed, "this is what you're confused about?" she asked exasperated.

"Well it's a more pleasant conversation than us arguing." He said hoisting himself up to sit on the counter next to where she stood at the sink.

She shook her head before continuing to wash the dishes. "If we looked into the future we could see what Tom decided and whatever mess occurred as a result, but we wouldn't know what would have happened if Tom had made the opposite decision. We'd have nothing to compare it to."

"So, we're right back where we started, weighing the risks and making a decision."

"You're so negative Albert, good things could come from him going."

"So could a whole host of bad things."

"A whole host of bad things could come from him staying too. Tell me one good thing that can come from him staying." He didn't answer her. "See? Why shouldn't he take that chance?"

"Who thinks like that? 'There's a chance something great could come from this, but a lot of bad things could happen to. I guess I'll go for that one chance something good happens.'" He held her gaze, behind her eyes he could see her decision wavering. She wasn't sure leaving was a bad idea anymore.

She sighed again, "I don't know Albert. Never mind, it's not our decision anyway."

"So you keep telling me," he said as he headed out the front door, leaving Emily to the dishes and her thoughts.


	14. Chapter 14

**notes: **Finally a chapter over 1000 words

As luck would have it Thomas came down the sidewalk, intent on trying to straighten out his thoughts while wandering the city, while Albert was leaving his house bent on the same purpose. Wandering the city at night would have been beyond foolish, but it was still early in the evening and while Albert wasn't quite as tall as Tom, both men were intimidating enough to deter most trouble.

Tom stopped at the end of the walk to the Wily house to look Albert in the face. His eyes were stormy, revealing his frustration; and his jaw was set like he was chewing the inside of his cheek. Tom's face displayed his own turbulent thoughts. After staring at each other a minute longer, Tom moved along down the sidewalk, saying nothing. Albert followed him, catching up within a few paces.

"Made up your mind yet?"

"Why do you think I'm out here?" He replied, grudgingly moving to the side so Albert could walk next to him.

"Maybe you wanted to grace the city with your presence one last time before leaving."

"You would think it necessary to honor the city with your wanderings. Me, I prefer when I don't have cause to wander."

"I'm not the one leaving." Albert's shoved his hands in his pockets and he glared at Tom while they talked.

"I haven't decided if I'm leaving yet."

"But you will leave, even if you haven't decided to yet."

"Glad to see you've made up your mind, would you leave me to make up my own then?" Tom sped up to walk in front of Albert.

"Nobody who ever leaves the city decides to come back. You know that, and yet you promised Emily you would."

"Because I will."

"No, you won't. You'll get swept into whatever it is that's so great out there, and never come back leaving us in this mess."

"You can't tell me that you aren't a little curious about what's out there." They stopped on the corner of a main avenue that led straight out of the city. Tom looked down the road, towards the horizon.

"Well what if it's not great Tom?" Albert came up beside him to cast a cursory glance at the horizon.

Tom turned back to him confused, and they resumed wandering.

"What if the reason people don't come back is because they can't?"

Tom pulled the letter out of his pocket. "They can. They choose not to."

"But you think you will. Tom it's a bad idea. You belong here, in this city. Not out there in who knows what."

"What is there here?" He asked coming to a stop to look Albert in the face. "Filth and crime. Death and absolutely no hope. I'll take who knows what any day."

There was a fire in Tom's eyes that told Albert the decision had already been made.

"Then why haven't you left yet?" Tom didn't answer him and began walking again. "Because you don't know what she thinks."

"She said that she wants me to stay."

"But she didn't tell you what she thinks," he insisted, "What she wants and what she thinks are two different things. You know that. She told you what she wants. Why won't she tell you what she thinks?"

Tom hastened his pace, they arrived at a railroad station leading out of the city. _Get on the train and ride it north to the last stop. It's a two-day trip in one direction. _

"Well Tom? Do you know why she won't tell you?"

He gazed down the tracks. _Get on the train and ride it north to the last stop._

"Do you want to know what she thinks?"

Tom's gaze jerked back to Wily's face.

"She told me what she thought." He continued, seeing he had Tom's attention again.

"She argued with you Albert, that doesn't mean her minds made up." Tom moved down the platform to sit on a bench and resumed watching the distant horizon.

"But yours is, and you still don't know what she thinks." Wily came up behind the bench and leaned on his hands resting on it's back.

"What then?" Tom demanded turning in his seat to glare at Wily, "What did she say she thinks if it's so important?"

Wily's face broke into a grin as he played his last card. "Stay." Tom turned back to face the tracks, his face in his hands.

"In fact," Albert said coming around to sit on the bench next to him. "If you want to know exactly what she said -"

"No, thank you Albert." Tom pulled his face out of his hands to examine the tracks again.

"Well, I'll leave you to your decision then." Wily stood up to leave. "Both of us are telling you to stay Thomas Light. Don't forget that."

Thomas heard Wily's footsteps as he went back the way they came. He leaned forward with his chin on the back of his hands and his elbows on his knees. _Get on the train and ride it north to the last stop. _She thought he should stay. _It's a two-day trip in one direction. _Once he left there'd be no coming back until he came back to stay. _I'll tell you about what makes the cities stay apart, and how you can help yours. _How did his uncle know that he wanted to fix this city? _Your father said you were an exceptionally clever boy in his letters. _His dad had written letters about him? To an uncle he didn't know he had? _If anyone could fix that city, he was sure it was you. _His dad had thought he could save this city.

She thought he should stay.

His dad thought he could fix this city.

If he fixed this city, her life would be so much easier.

But she wanted him to stay.

He buried his face in his hands again.

He could make her life better, even if she wasn't happy now.

He sat up and pulled out his uncle's letter again.

_If anyone could fix that city he was sure it was you._

Light stood up and walked home. He'd made his decision.


	15. Chapter 15

**notes: **This chapter's a bit... fluffy. My sincerest apologies if you don't like fluff mixed with your Protomen.

Albert Wily slinked back home through the darkening streets. Roughly a third of the city's streetlights actually worked, so most of his trip was poorly lit. There was something in Wily's eyes though, something hard, that deterred all trouble.

He was rather happy with how that conversation had turned out. Light would now choose to stay in the city, and he had brought him to that conclusion. And it'd been so easy. Somehow, without trying, he'd known what to say to change Tom's mind, known what to say to make Tom so confused. It was thrilling. "Stay," he'd said and Thomas, _Thomas Light!_ had his head in his hands. Wily was on top of the world, he controlled the world.

Thus, with his head running away with this small triumph he waltzed in the front door. Emily sat with Sam at the table helping him read a short book brought home from school. She looked up as the door opened, her eyes meeting his. She blinked and moved back slightly, startled by what she'd seen. She looked back to Sam who was still struggling with the words on the page.

"That's enough Sam, we'll finish it tomorrow. Go get ready for bed." Sam, who like most small boys wasn't overly fond of school, was not going to point out that they weren't even halfway through the book. He skipped out of the room as Emily stood up to meet Wily.

"What happened?" She demanded the minute Sam was out of the room.

"What do you mean?"

Emily wasn't as sure of herself for a moment, it had been only a suspicion that something was going on, women's intuition maybe. Then she looked at his eyes again, and she saw that hard look, with something akin to fire dancing behind it. "What happened out there?"

"What makes you think something happened?" He asked, moving to open a cupboard, although for no particular reason.

"You've got that look on your face Albert."

"What look?"

"Like you've been up to mischief. The look you'd get when all my mother's cookies magically disappeared or when you'd take my things and climb higher in the tree than I could." That was it she decided, that mischievous look she'd known so well through grade school. It definitely wasn't as malevolent as she first thought it'd been.

"Mischief? No, definitely no mischief. I just went for a walk."

"Where?"

"What's with the interrogation Em? I just went out to think."

She gave up with a sigh, it wasn't as if this were an unusual activity for him. He often went out after dinner and came back late. The later he came back, or the darker it was the more worried Emily was. He still had the cupboard door open for no apparent reason.

"What are you doing?"

He continued to stare into the cupboard like he was seeing something more than a stack of plates. "Where did I put it?" he mumbled to himself, reaching up to a seemingly empty shelf above Emily's head.

"Ah, here we go. A very happy birthday to you." From the top shelf at the back of the cupboard, where Emily couldn't see it unless she decided to climb on a chair, he pulled out a large hair clip, perfect for holding Emily's long, dark auburn hair out of her face.

"Oh." Emily laughed a little in surprise. She had known it was her birthday of course, but besides having Marie and Sam sing to her at breakfast she hadn't expected any celebration of the fact. "Thank you!" A smile spread across her face as she stepped into the hug Albert offered her. He pulled her closer, giving her a kiss, before releasing her to say goodnight to Sam who had come back into the kitchen at that moment.

Sam and Marie had become used to walking in on the two in an embrace, as it had happened several times since they had returned from the park that day many months ago. Marie had taken it upon herself to tease the two about it every time the opportunity presented itself. Sam, as is the custom of most small children, had a habit of asking "why?" every time he saw such a scene. This time Albert beat him to it.

"Did _you _give your sister a happy birthday kiss today?" he asked in a teasing voice.

Sam's eyes, already wide with sleepiness, became a little wider. "Was I supposed to?"

"You most certainly were!" Albert laughed. "Good thing the day's not over yet."

Emily laughed and scooped Sam up in her arms. "That's one for good night." She said planting a kiss on one of his cheeks, "and one for happy birthday." She kissed his other cheek. "Say good night to Albert?"

"Good night Uncle Albert."

"Night, bud." he replied opting to ruffle Sam's hair rather than give him a kiss. Emily carried him off to bed, tucking him beneath the sheets and saying good night before he pulled her close to ask a question.

"Do I have to give Uncle Albert a kiss on his birthday?" he whispered in a terrified voice.

Emily laughed, "no," she told him before rumpling his hair one last time. She laughed as she left the room, and was still laughing when she got back to the kitchen and Albert's queries about what was so funny.


	16. Chapter 16

**notes: **Considering I just spent 2 hours editing new chapters of this, I have to update. Besides this chapter's pretty short.

Three houses stood together several blocks from the train station. One was empty, another held a variety of people and the third housed just one person. A brisk wind swept leaves down the street, a sign of the changing seasons. In the backyard amidst the dying grass, in the shade of an old tree two teenagers stood while a third sat on the lowest bough of the tree. Emily took a step forward and gave Tom a hug.

"I'll miss you." Tears streaked down her face. She held him for a minute before holding him at arm's length to look at his face. "You have to come back. None of this disappearing."

"I will, don't worry."

"And write. You have to send me a letter when you arrive so I know you're ok."

"I will."

"And more letters after that, not just that one."

"I know Em. I'm not disappearing, I promise." She hugged him again.

Albert Wily had been stewing for the last few minutes over how Tom had come to this decision. He'd been so sure that Tom was going stay, how did he go from having his head in his hands, to this confident decision to leave the city?

"Goodbye Albert." Tom said holding out his hand, pulling Albert out of his thoughts.

"Bye Tom, don't forget your promise." He looked straight into Tom's eyes as they shook hands.

"I won't." Tom returned his stare easily. "You'll hear from me soon."

Emily watched the two men carefully, here was more evidence that something had happened while Albert had been out the night before Tom announced his decision. She didn't like the way Albert was staring at Tom, though Tom didn't seem to mind.

"We'll take care of the house while you're gone." She said, breaking the tension. "Make sure you have somewhere to go when you get back."

"Thanks, Em." He turned back to her. "I'll get going then." He picked up the bag sitting by his feet. The trio walked around to the front of the house. Marie and Sam came out and joined them on the sidewalk.

"Good luck," Marie said.

"Goodbye," Sam hugged him.

"You'd better write Thomas Light!" Emily called, waving as he turned the corner.

Albert stood a few steps away from the group, watching the retreating figure with arms crossed. The minute Tom was out of sight he turned on his heel and went back in the house.

After Tom was gone Emily stopped waving. She stood there for a minute, one arm around Sam, looking at the corner he'd gone around. She followed his progress in her mind; now he's crossing the large avenue that ran through the city. Now he's arriving at the station. He's getting on the train, the train's moving, pulling him away. Now Thomas Light was gone.


	17. Chapter 17

Snow was falling as Emily walked down to the Light house two days later. She closed the door quickly behind her, more to keep the cold out than heat in. It would have been foolish to heat the house with no one living in it, so it was nearly as cold inside as it was outside, but she was protected from the wind inside. She quickly checked to see if all the windows were closed before going into the bedroom.

At first glance there was nothing wrong with the room. The bed was neatly made and the nothing was on the floor. Emily pulled out a dresser drawer to reveal a mosh pit of everything from clothes to picture frames. Carefully she pulled out the drawer and set it on the bed. She sorted the clothes from the hair pins, and the books and picture frames from the contents of Nancy Light's sewing kit until she had several piles all across the bed. She put the clothes back into the drawer and into the dresser. She stacked the books on top of Henry Light's desk in the corner. and stood the picture frames up near them. She found the sewing box under the bed and replaced the pins, needles, threads and seam ripper she'd found in the drawer to their proper places. Then she moved to the next drawer. When she finished the last one she looked at the clock. She'd been there for over an hour sorting out Tom's mess. After running a cloth over the furniture and sweeping the room out she returned to the Wily house, pleased with the progress of her project.

Sam was playing in the snow as she came up to the house, attempting to roll a snow ball to build a snow man. It was the first snow of the year though and it wasn't sticking well. Most of it was melting on impact although a good dusting had gathered in the grass.

"Emily, can you help me?" he called when he saw her.

"There's not enough snow Sam." She answered as she went to the mailbox. "Wait a few weeks and we'll be able to make a snowman." She tucked the mail into her pocket without looking at it. She wanted to get inside and thaw out a bit.

"Come inside now, you shouldn't be out here without a hat."

"You don't have a hat."

Emily reached up to rub her red ears with her nearly frozen fingers. At least Sam had mittens, she thought, that was something.

"Then I'd better go inside too."

They closed the door quickly against the wind when they stepped into the kitchen. Emily hung their coats by the door before remembering to take out the mail. She placed it on the table and pushed her hands under her armpits to try to warm them.

"Cold?" Albert asked coming into the kitchen from the basement.

"A bit." Emily responded, moving to rub Sam's ears which were considerably less red then they had been a minute ago. He was shivering still. "Go wrap up with a blanket Sam." He gladly went to the bedroom to curl up in the blankets that had been added to the bed when the snow started to fly.

Emily blew on her hands trying to warm up. "Let me help," Albert said, pulling her into a hug. He was concerned by her red face and ears. It wasn't that cold, but she should have had a hat or mittens or a scarf, anything really. Just a coat wouldn't be much good for the next few months.

"Where'd you go?" he asked, moving to make some coffee as she sat down at the table.

"The Light's." She blew on her hands, she was starting to feel her fingers again.

"Oh?" Albert's face darkened a moment. _There's nothing you can do about that, _he thought, _he's gone and won't come back. Deal with it and keep going. _"What'd you do?" he asked coming back to sit with her while they waited for the coffee to start percolating.

"Swept it out, kept the dust from gathering." He took her hands and started rubbing them, slowly some warmth flowed back into her fingertips. They sat like that for several minutes.

"Coffee's perking." Emily said. Albert stood up before she could.

"You got the mail?" he asked turning the heat down.

"Yes," she reached for it. "We won't have to go out again."

"Good." It had been like this for the last two days. Albert wasn't exactly upset with her, but he was upset, and trying to move past it. The result was clipped conversations combined with bits of the affection Emily had known before Tom had decided to leave. It wasn't quite unpleasant, but it wasn't quite right either. Emily hoped that it would pass quickly.

Albert took the coffee pot off the stove and carefully pulled out the filter and basket before pouring two cups of coffee. He sat back down at the table as Emily pulled the stack of mail toward her. Bill, ad, bill, junk, a hand addressed envelope. Emily pulled that out of the pile. There was no name above the address, and the return address was illegible.

She handed it to Albert, the house belonged to him so any mail addressed to the house was his as well. He slit the envelope, and pulled out two pieces of folded paper, one with his name on it and one with Emily's, in Tom's handwriting.

Albert heard Emily breath in sharply as she realized who the letter was from. They both reached for their respective papers.

_Emily,_

_As promised here is your letter. The train pulled in this morning and I walked through a snowstorm to my uncle's home. You would not believe how different things are here. There's no sign of the poverty and squalor we see every day. The people are happy and the technology Em, it's beyond imagination. We have been trapped inside all day but Uncle Peter thinks we will be able to go to the university tomorrow, he's a professor there. I don't know what exactly he plans to teach me, but I'll find out tomorrow. You have to keep up your end of the bargain. I can't write letters if you and Albert never write back. How is Albert? He was rather upset with my decision._

_Love,  
__Thomas_

Emily looked up and saw that Albert was already finished. "We'll have to buy stamps," she said absently, looking back to the page to read it again, "and envelopes."

"Tom's thought of that." Albert held a pre-addressed and stamped envelope that had been tucked into his letter. He stood up and rummaged around in a drawer before pulling out two pens. He handed one to Emily before sitting down and wondering what he was going to write his return letter on. He glanced at Emily and saw that she'd begun writing on the back of her letter. He turned his letter over and began to write.

_Tom,_

_It snowed here today as well, Sam tried to make a snowman in the front yard, but all we had was a dusting. It is very cold though, Emily doesn't have any hat or gloves and nearly froze today. Besides that she seems fine, getting on with life and fussing over Sam._

_Just how unimaginable is this technology Tom? Tell me about it; I want to know every detail of the city you left us for._

_Albert_


	18. Chapter 18

**notes: **I'm not completely happy with this chapter, I think it's because it's 779 words of... exposition.

Where: farther north

When: 27 and a half years before 200X

Tom sat in the living room of his uncle's house reading through Albert's letter. The house had surprised him; with three staircases and several rooms on each floor it may not have seemed large to the people of his uncle's city, but to Tom it was a castle.

His aunt poked her head in the door, "It's time to eat Tom." He followed her to the kitchen.

His cousins Susan and Charles, named for the grandparents they'd never known and several years younger than Tom, both sat at the table waiting for him with their father. It was strange, Tom thought, that they'd only heard stories about their namesakes while he'd actually known them. It was one of many differences that living in another city had created. Another was that they knew all about technology that Tom had never heard of, like television. He'd never imagined such a contraption and they'd lived with it all their lives. They'd always had a computer in the house and he'd never seen one. They'd never imagined walking across the city to get somewhere, their family had its own car. It was fascinating and unsettling at the same time. And it made Tom wonder, why had none of this wonderful technology come over to his city? Why had he been one of three passengers on that train with none getting on for the trip back? His uncle had promised to tell him, but as of yet they hadn't had a full conversation alone.

Tom sat down to eat. This was another thing that surprised him. So much food, at every meal, and good food too. Tom accepted the fresh roll his aunt offered him, and a small helping of the soup that she'd made for dinner.

"Why don't you eat a lot?" Susan demanded after studying his bowl for some time.

"Susan!" Mary admonished the four-year-old.

Tom smiled at the question. He liked Susan, if she had a question she asked it, and she found her cousin Tom very curious and had a lot of questions for him. Tom didn't mind answering them; yesterday they'd talked about his strange habit of putting patches on his clothes instead of getting new ones like she did.

"I'm not used to eating that much."

"Why not?"

"Susan please, leave your cousin alone."

"Yeah Susan, leave your cousin alone." Nine year old Charles added.

"Charles," his mother said wearily, "I don't need you help with this."

Tom hid a laugh, this was a strange concept to him as well, having a sibling. He liked it.

The meal continued for a few minutes in silence.

"I think we'll finally be able to leave the house tomorrow." Uncle Peter said. "The storm seems to be settling down." The storm that had blown up when Tom arrived hadn't been over as quickly as they'd hoped and no one had been outside for four days. Aunt Mary had been shocked when the postman had arrived that morning and insisted that he come inside and thaw out with some coffee before continuing on his way.

"I have to go to school tomorrow?" Charles whined.

"Yes," Peter said giving his son a stern look, ending all further complaints.

"We'll be able to go to the university tomorrow?" Tom asked eagerly.

"I think so."

"What will we do?"

"Well according to the Administrative Board you're my 'assistant.' I think you'll have plenty to learn sitting in on my classes."

"What do you teach?"

"Computer science."

Tom bit his lip. "I don't know a thing about computers."

"Don't worry. I won't let you get too lost."

"Why don't you know what a computer is?" Susan cut in.

"We don't have any in my city."

"Why not?"

"I don't know." Tom answered looking straight at his uncle.

"Their mayor doesn't like technology." Peter said, looking at Susan. "He's afraid of it."

"Afraid of technology?" Tom asked.

Peter looked at Tom now. "Your whole city's being held back by one man. That's politics. If you want a full version of how your city got so backwards, I suggest getting a history book while we're at the university tomorrow."

"I wouldn't know where to look for one."

Peter smiled, and repeated himself. "Don't worry. I won't let you get too lost."

"I'd rather not get lost at all."

"Can't make any promises there."


	19. Chapter 19

**notes: **I realized how very disappointing that last chapter was, plus I'm rather bored. so here's an extra chapter this week.

_Albert,_

_We had so much snow that my cousin Charles did not have school for four days. It has given me time to get to know my uncle's family and learn about all this technology. They have something called a television. You turn it on and there are different shows you can watch, stories that are acted out and people watch in their homes. You see the actors on a screen; I'm not sure how to explain a screen, imagine a piece of glass, and there are lots of small lights behind it. The lights turn on and off at different times and in different colors to make a picture. Not all the shows are stories, every night my uncle watches the news. You turn on the television, and there on the screen you see a person sitting behind a desk telling you everything that happened in the city that day. I do not know how the picture gets on the screen, but my uncle promised to explain that after I've sat in some of his classes at the university. He teaches computer science, I will learn how to create this technology._

_Emily should use my mother's hat and gloves, they were in her room, I do not know where they ended up after I tore the room apart. There may be some smaller ones that were mine in the trunk under the bed for Sam. Do you have a hat and gloves? How are Emily and Sam?_

_Thomas_

Albert reread Tom's words for a fifth time. A piece of glass with lights behind it? And they called it a screen? How would the lights blink at the right time? How big was this screen that it had many lightbulbs behind it? And come to think of it how did the man sitting behind the desk on the screen know what had happened in the city that day? He couldn't learn so fast, the newspapers had what happened yesterday, not that day. And what if he was wrong? Then the entire city would think something had happened when it hadn't, assuming they watched the news. He sat contemplating this strange device for another minute. Well Tom had said unimaginable technology, he hadn't lied about that. But how was a television keeping people off the streets?

He looked up from the bed at the sound of someone coming down the stairs. A few minutes later Emily appeared carrying a basket of wet laundry.

"It's cold down here." She said, shivering as she moved to hang the laundry on the clothes line strung across one side of the basement.

He shrugged, "It's been colder." He looked back down to the letter.

"Letter from Tom?" She poked her head around the towel she was hanging up when he didn't answer. "Albert?"

"What? Yeah, from Tom. He says you should use his mom's gloves, if we can find them."

"I think they're in the dresser." Silence reigned while she finished with the laundry and then started back up the steps.

"Em?" He called after her. She turned, "Do you think he'll come back?" he sat up from his sprawled position across the bed to see her reaction.

A change rippled across her face at the question. Her eyes grew sad and a wrinkle formed on her forehead. Her mouth was set in a straight, determined line across her face, but she looked like she was biting her lip with worry at the same time.

"I... I don't know Albert, I hope so but..." She trailed off as doubts came to mind. "He promised, and he's yet to break a promise."

"But what if -"

"What if he gets distracted, what if it's so wonderful he can't bear to come back, what if he can't come back, what if something happens to him? The list goes on and on. He promised. That's all I have to go on and that's all I can think about or I can't keep thinking clearly."

"So you just ignore those possibilities?" A hard edge was creeping into Albert's voice as he stood up and crossed the room.

"I don't ignore them Albert, I know they're there." He stood right in front of her now and she looked up to meet his eyes and hold his stare. "Just like I know I could get lost in a blizzard or that a million things could happen to Sam on the way to school. But I can't worry about those things constantly or I can't keep thinking. So I don't worry and I keep hoping those things I could be worrying about don't happen." She held the laundry basket, now empty, between them. Albert hadn't been the same since he came back that day before Tom decided he was leaving, and it worried her. A cold anger lay behind his eyes when Tom was mentioned, but it looked like he was a bit more upset this time.

"So you worry and do nothing."

"What should I be doing?" She asked, annoyed at the accusation.

"I don't know," Albert said moving away from her and scooping the letter off the bed. "Maybe something more than answering his letters."

"Like what?" She asked again, the volume of her voice rising.

"I don't know!" He shouted back. "But he has to come home, he has to come back." He dropped back down to the bed, and stared at the letter as if he was hoping to pull Tom back.

Emily studied him for a moment, the frustration that'd caused his outburst filled the room. She set basket down near the steps and crossed to room to sit near him on the bed.

"Why Albert?" She asked gently, he looked up to her confused. "Why does he need to come home?"

"This is where he belongs... This is where he's needed."

"Needed for what?"

"I don't know!" He announced again, flopping backward and throwing the letter away from him. "But he could change things here, he's gone though. And he won't come back."

"Why are you so convinced he's gone for good?"

"No one comes back Emily. Why should he be different?" He was studying the ceiling instead of looking at her.

"Because he has you and me to come back to. When people leave it's because they have no where else to go."

"Why did his Uncle leave then?"

"He must have needed to get away from something."

"What?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's something to do with why the cities don't interact much beyond a railroad running between the two."

"I don't know, I don't know. We don't know anything do we?"

"Yes we do." She placed a hand on his. "We know that things aren't hopeless, and we know where things stand between us." She wasn't sure about the second part, things had been rocky since Tom left, but maybe this would settle them.

He looked back to her now, and saw how worried she was about him. "Yes, we know that." He sat up and put an arm around her shoulders pulling her close. "We know that."

She reached for his other hand and turned it over in hers. "Why are you so frustrated by Tom leaving?"

"I didn't expect it." He leaned closer to her. "It wasn't supposed to happen."

"Supposed to happen? _Is_ there a way things are supposed to happen?"

"Yes, for example, right now you're supposed to kiss me."

She laughed before leaning closer to humor him.


	20. Chapter 20

**notes: **Sorry about the super-shortness of this chapter & not updating last week; I decided I needed to add something here for plot several chapters ahead to make sense. Thus, a few weeks of short chapters will ensue.

Tom tentatively sat in front of the screen mounted to the wall in his uncle's home. His uncle leaned around from where he stood behind him to push a button causing the screen to light up and flash a series of images before reverting to a dark blue with icons scattered across it.

"Right so you can use the computer to do a lot of things. The most useful is access the internet."

"Internet?" Tom asked as Peter reached around and tapped an icon on the screen with his finger.

"Think of it as a giant computer file that anyone with a computer can access and add to. You use a browser to navigate it." He nodded at the screen as it changed from mostly blue to mostly white with a grey bar across the top. "You tap in this box." He put his finger on the box in the center of the screen. "And type what you want to look for."

Tom gave him a confused look. "Shakespeare, for example. We can look up where he was born, what his life was like, see analysis of his work... Type his name in." He instructed nodding at the keyboard. Slowly, pecking at the keys as he located each one Tom typed out the search. "And search," his uncle said as he finished. Tom reached up and tapped the search button. The screen went blank before filling with words. "Then you can choose one." Tom tapped the first item on the list and the screen shifted again, this time to a theater company's webpage. "Your searches will work better if you try more specific things, like 'Shakespeare biography' or something."

"And you can look up anything here." Tom asked eyes wide and surprised.

"Pretty much."

Tom reached up to the screen and tapped the box at the top. "How do I get rid of those words?" His uncle pointed out the backspace button on the keyboard. Tom got rid of the Shakespeare query and typed; _M-a-y-_

His uncle gave a small frown as he saw what Tom was searching. "There won't be much on him." He said as Tom searched "Mayor Wolv" and three hits appeared on the screen.

"Why?" Tom asked tapping one causing a message saying that the site could not be found to pop up.

"The Information Lockdown. A few weeks after he came to power Wolv shut down the beginnings of internet in your city and burned a lot of books. He didn't want any ideas leaking in or out. You'd be better off searching your city's name, or for the Central Power."

"Central Power?"

"Look it up."

* * *

_Tom,_

_You said that the internet is like a big computer file, but what is a computer? Is it like a television? How big is it? How does it work?_

_Things are as well as can be expected here, with the exception of Marie. She's become very ill and there's no way for us to get the medicine we need. Al and I are looking for extra work, but, well you know how it is. I'll let you know if anything changes, and please, tell me more about your uncle and his family. What are your cousins like?_

_Love,  
__Emily_


	21. Chapter 21

**notes: **I think I have more words in italics then normal print this time...

Tom walked into the public library trying to appear more confident than he really was. All around him people buzzed from one task to the next, knowing exactly what they were doing. He spotted an available computer and gave a silent prayer of thanks to his uncle and cousin for thinking to explain how to use one. A few minutes later Tom stared frustrated at the screen. He'd located the book he'd wanted, but he had no idea what the number assigned to it meant or where he could find it in the library. He scribbled the number down on piece of scratch paper near the computer, evidently there for that purpose, and began to wander. Spotting a number much lower than the one he was searching for printed on the side a book he followed the increase in numbers to the right, until he reached the end of the shelf. He looked at the books across the aisle only to discover that now they began numbering higher then the number he was looking for. So he wandered back and forth, all the while becoming more frustrated with this seemingly nonsensical shelving system until he happened upon the shelf where the book he wanted should be. Pulling it out he found a deserted, isolated table, and began to read.

_The Central Power  
19XX - 19XX_

_The Central Power began as little more than a  
coalition of cities formed for joint protection. Over  
the decades it morphed from an agreement to  
protect each other into a joint government that  
was growing stronger with every political cycle  
until civil war erupted between the cities._

_ Most experts on the war, which goes by many  
names varying with location and city of origin, agree that  
the main cause of the war lies near the founding of the  
Central Power. The collective defense initially put in place  
had free rein to protect the people of the cities as they  
saw fit. A precedent was set early on for the Central Power  
to protect the cities by settling disputes between them.  
This opened the door for the Central Power to regulate  
various business between the cities and eventually to  
develop a government._

He flipped through a few chapters, the civil war was something he might want to read about later, but for now he wanted to know how things currently stood between the city and the Central Power.

_The Central Power has maintained the peace promised  
by the Cessation Decision, relations have however been  
tense. Most of the cities who chose to leave the Power  
have maintained strong militias and arsenals. _

Tom scanned the page until he saw the name of his city.

_ ...has maintained a particularly aggressive stance  
toward the Central Power; keeping pace with it in  
an arms race since 19XX, even at the expense of its  
citizens. As of 19XX the city had succeeded in building  
a missile stronger than the most advanced design of  
the Central Power, causing panic among the cities of  
the Power. In fact Mayor Wolv's northern neighbor..._

He began scanning the page for more information about this arms race, but that seemed to be the only mention of it. Tom flipped through the book looking for something to explain the term to him but it was not mentioned again, he'd have to ask his uncle.

* * *

_Tom,_

_So Wolv and the Power are racing to see who can build up the biggest thing that goes boom first huh? Makes sense that your uncle's city would want to secede, seems like you're in the safest place in the world right now. Did you find anything about whether Wolv would have reasons to use those explosives on his own citizens? It's a lot easier to avoid poking a sleeping dragon if you know where he's laying. _

_Grandmother's doing all right; she's come to peace with things I think. Sam's a bit upset though, she is as much his grandma as she is mine. Emily's had her hands full with him and some trouble at the factory. Her company was bought by another and now all the office jobs are being reorganized. I think what makes her most upset about Sam though, is that he'll remember my grandmother's death more clearly than his mother's face. It's a mad world we live in._

_Al_


	22. Chapter 22

**notes: **My apologies for not posting in weeks, what was time for writing was taken over by... life.

Charles nervously poked his head around the door frame to see what his cousin was up to. The small room that had become Tom's was a disheveled mess of what currently occupied his waking moments, books and tinkering. There were stacks of books on the desk, piled on the ﬂoor and around the old computer that Tom was dissecting to understand some of the concepts he learned about in class. Charles took a few more steps into the room, his cousin hadn't noticed his presence, he was occupied with a piece of paper at his desk and had his back to the door. Charles glanced at the title of a book on top of a stack near the door that was nearly eye-level with him.

"_Modern Robotics and their Theoretical Application to Artiﬁcial Intelligence_?" He asked in disbelief, startling Tom. "Why on earth would you want to read that?"

"Because maybe it could ﬁx this," Tom muttered under his breath as he put Emily's letter carefully in the box with the rest of his past correspondence.

"What?" Charles asked, not quite sure what he'd said.

"Because I want to make a robot," Tom said teasingly, "one that can ﬂy around and take you places so your father wouldn't take it to his head that I should learn to drive so I can take you and your sister to school."

"That's ridiculous."

"Oh?" Tom asked, continuing the joke, "I'll take a helmet," he picked up a hat from the shelf near the door and put it on Charles' head, "do some jiggery-pokery," he drummed his ﬁngers on the side of Charles' head, "and then you just strap it on, say where you want to go and you're off!"

Charles laughed, "Dad wants you downstairs," he said as he returned the hat to the shelf.

"Right, I'll be there in a minute." Tom walked back to the box of letters and pulled out the most recent, reading through it again. ...Albert's not taking it well... Tom was worried, when Al was upset, well, things could get a bit ugly. He thought about his last letter though, Al had seemed more concerned about Sam than upset, then again, he hadn't exactly been himself right after his mother's death either. Tom smiled for a moment remembering how Emily had ordered him to a chair to break him out of his rage during that incident, with a sigh he put the letter back in the box and went downstairs.

His uncle had this notion that it was natural to learn to drive, and no matter how many times Tom insisted that he'd have no opportunity to drive when he returned home his uncle still insisted that he should learn. Accordingly he had taken to having Tom drive whenever one of his cousins needed to be picked up. The first time Tom had attempted to back the car out had been a harrowing experience, but evidently not enough to dissuade his uncle from the venture. After countless weeks of accidentally turning windshield wipers on when it was perfectly sunny out, narrowly missing mailboxes and garbage cans and for one terrifying moment when trying to park mixing up the brake and the gas, Tom finally could drive across the mayhem of the city without incident the majority of the time.

Today however it did not appear that his uncle needed Tom to collect his cousins from anywhere; as Tom came down the stairs and headed for the living room he was ambushed by his aunt's sudden concern over his appearance. Despite his queries as she rushed to brush as much dirt as possible off his shirt, a fair amount had collected as he leaned over the inner workings of the gutted computer in his room, she refused to tell him what was happening but shooed him into the living room where his uncle and someone who was evidently a good friend of his were waiting.

"Ah, here he is," Peter said as Tom walked into the room. "Tom this is my friend Dr. Andrew Sparks, Andrew, my nephew."

"From Wolv's city, yes," Dr. Sparks said reaching to shake Tom's hand, "Your uncle has told me about you."

Not entirely certain where to go with that Tom shook the doctor's hand but didn't say anything; which evidently wasn't what his uncle wanted.

After and awkward moment Peter faked a cough, "What were you working on?"

"I was writing a letter to a friend back home," then catching the exasperated look on his uncle's face over Dr. Sparks' shoulder Tom continued. "But before that I was working on that map program I was telling you about."

"Remind me what you're trying to do with that again?"

"Well if it works, I'll be able to install it in something already mobile, and the map will then direct that to a destination you set. It's different from a GPS though, because let's say I install it in the vacuum cleaner," Tom continued walking across the room to pick up the appliance that had truly startled him the first time he'd seen his aunt set this strange disk on the ground, press a button and walk away as the machine proceeded to inch its way across the floor and around the entire room. "I would have to build and interface to attach the program I'm making. This already has a similar program, so it would be one of the simpler machines to connect the program to. If it works I could program this to go across the city to the University, right to your office door with a book you may have forgotten at home. If there weren't traffic lights and cars and a number of other things that could damage it on the way."

"It's an interesting idea though," Dr. Sparks said, "Theoretically you could attach that to something a bit more complex, with other programs to avoid those dangers. Do you think you could build those programs?"

Tom thought about it for a moment. "Eventually maybe, I'm not particularly accomplished when it comes to programming this is more dabbling than anything else."

Dr. Sparks' eyebrows shot up, "Impressive dabbling. Tom I'm here to offer you a job."

That startled Tom, he looked up quickly from where he'd been replacing the vacuum cleaner to its place. "A job where?"

"I'm from the Research Institute, we're looking for someone who knows a bit about programming and isn't afraid to experiment."

"Experiment with what?"

"That's a bit of a secret. But I can tell you it's similar to this, figuring out a way to guide things, but on a slightly different scale, and with an incredible amount of precision. You'd be working with about five other people, assuming I can convince them all."

Tom glanced at his uncle, who probably couldn't fit a bigger smile on his face.

"All right, when do I start?"


	23. Chapter 23

6 months later

Sam knew something was wrong. His sister was home when he returned from school, and she wasn't doing anything. Emily was never home in the middle of the afternoon, and when she was home she was flying from one task to the next. She always had some chore or project in the house to tend to; but apparently not today. Emily leaned forward with her head in her hands at the table, a pile of papers in front of her. She barely answered when Sam greeted her and evidently didn't feel like playing with him. He watched her quietly from their room while pretending to read a book from school. For a long time she sat there, eyes glazed over staring at rows of numbers on the page. A factory whistle blew somewhere in the depths of the city, startling her. She stood quickly and tucked the papers away before pulling together what meager meal she could manage.

The sight of Emily setting dishes on the table when he arrived home caused Albert to stop short in the doorway. Normally she wouldn't be home for at least two more hours and it would be left up to him to find dinner and make Sam do his homework, although it was usually the threat of his sister's anger that caused Sam to struggle through the task.

"It's a bit drafty with that door open." Emily commented, gesturing to the still open door behind him.

"Are you working the normal factory hours now?" He asked coming into the house and shutting the door.

"I might be."

"Might?"

"For now at least."

"Em, what happened?"

Emily released a long sigh before answering. "The entire factory office is being reorganized. I have my choice, warehouse job at half my previous pay, or fend for myself. Given the options, I'll take the factory job and hope to find better work somewhere else."

"Em you know –"

"That no one who goes into factory work ever moves to something else," she brought a glass down on the counter with unnecessary force, and took a deep breath before continuing, "yes I know. But what else can I do?"

Al sighed coming up behind her and putting his arms around her. "I don't know."

Emily bit her lip and forced herself to keep control. Anger was just wasted energy at this point, nothing could be done about the situation. "I don't either. For now… the factory it is."

"We'll figure it out Em."

She sighed again, "We'll figure it out."

* * *

Tom leaned forward and adjusted the connections between the interface and the prototype guidance system. The sleeve of the white lab coat required at the Research Institute snagged on a more delicate mechanism as he reached across. Swearing under his breath he gently removed the cloth and leaned back to roll up the sleeves on the irksome garment.

"What's wrong now?" his friend, and fellow computer programmer, Jack McCormick called from where he clattered away on a keyboard across the room.

"Nothing, just this lab coat getting in my way again."

Jack snorted, "you know you can take it off so long as we're the only ones here."

"It's when someone walks in unannounced that worries me."

Jack nodded his understanding and continued to type.

Tom checked the place where it had snagged once more before continuing. The lab coat had seemed like quite an honor at first, and his aunt and cousins had been extremely impressed the first time he'd come down dressed for work in it. But now the novelty had worn off and it just seemed to get in his way.

"Ready!" He called a few moments later, placing the top of the prototype back over the inner components.

"Shall we see if Mr. Thomas Light has managed to create a device to wreak revenge on the good old Mayor Wolv?" Jack asked as Tom came over to the computer still typing, sending instructions to the device on the table.

"Let's see if this thing flies to where I want it first, then we'll leave the revenge bit to the Power."

"Right, because they get what we work so hard to make and we get no say in how it's used."

"We knew that when we signed up. Personally I don't care so long as I can give them a tool to hit what they want and need and not whatever happens to be near what their aiming at." Tom said moving across the room to a wall of mostly incomprehensible dials and knobs, though he seemed to understand what each meant and controlled.

"Well if we get enough time with this," Jack crossed the room to join him with a print out of numbers and commands from the computer, "We can fly your explosive of choice through the window of Wolv's office and add a program that scans for, I don't know a heat signature or something, and halts detonation until he's actually in the room."

"Let's just make sure it actually goes where we want it first. Then we can think about attaching an explosive to it." Tom moved toward the wall nearest the work table then and typed a few numbers into a keypad on the wall to open the garage door built into it. "Help me move this would you?"

Jack came over to the table and between the two of them they moved the device from the table to the floor, and locked it in place with bolts set in the floor.

"Well the sooner we finish this the better, because as soon as they have a way to attack without blowing everything up, the happier I will be and the sooner this nuclear scare dies down." Jack continued moving back to the wall of dials and switches then.

Tom moved to the computer and sent a message to headquarters announcing they were ready to launch a test flight. "I don't think I'll be happy until I know that Wolv doesn't have, or won't use his missiles. For once, I want him to keep pace with the Power." He turned to study the skyline of the city through the door now fully opened, and marveled once again at its vast difference from his native city. The skyline was not dominated by smoke spewing factories, but skyscrapers; the streets were full of people bustling from one place to another and chatting, not empty and desolate with the exception of a collection of vagabonds and hooligans.

"True enough," Jack answered as the computer beeped.

Tom turned and smiled at Jack, "we're go for launch."

Jack grinned widely, "care to do the honors?" He asked pointing at a large red button in the wall.


	24. Chapter 24

Where: The Light's

When: 25 years before 200X

Thomas Light sat at a desk in what had been his room for the last three years. He'd discovered that he had a knack for figuring out computers and other technology, which was a surprise since he hadn't heard of a computer until a few years ago. At the moment however he was not studying the textbook on broadcasting his uncle had given him, nor was he dismantling the computer that resided in the corner of his room. He was engrossed in a text on recent history, a topic that never ceased to fascinate him.

_...In 19XX the tension between the cities finally boiled over. A brief war broke out, (for a full account of the war refer to chapter 26), and ultimately a council was convened to end hostilities. The Toleration of Cessation Decision was made by this council on August 21st, 19XX. It allowed each city to decide if they wished to remain under the jurisdiction of the Central Power, cities that chose to leave the Power would not be molested. The issue caused intense debate in many cities however most made their decision peacefully. The most notable case of violence was in the city..._

All of this Tom knew already, he had read a plethora of books and articles on the Toleration of Cessation Decision. He continued to skim the page to see if this book would have anything he didn't know.

_... In this city the Cessation Decision would not be decided until after the fall elections, making the race for mayor particularly brutal. The two major contenders were Mark Wolv and Joseph Stanton. There is a history of violence that surrounds the elections in this city, and this one was no exception. The families of both candidates were closely guarded. However Joseph Stanton's wife Maria was murdered a week before the election, she was later avenged by her brother Samuel Stanton after the election took place and in the political chaos of the cessation. Joseph Stanton narrowly lost the election and many attribute Mark Wolv's victory to Samuel Stanton's deranged and violent behavior after his sister's death..._

That was something Tom hadn't read before. He had heard many times that the Cessation Decision had caused a particularly heated election in his home city, and the violence that surrounded it had been referred to many times. However, this was the first time that Joseph Stanton's family had been mentioned by name. He had wondered a few times if Emily could be related to Joseph Stanton, however he had assumed that there were many Stantons back home. Samuel Stanton had been her father's name though.

He glanced at the clock, it was past nine. His cousins would be in bed then, but it wasn't too late to use the computer. He headed downstairs and a few seconds later he had a searched "Maria Stanton." He clicked on the first link and read:

_Maria Stanton was the wife of Joseph Stanton, who ran against Mark Wolv in the race for mayor in 19XX just before the Cessation Decision. The families of both candidates were protected, however Maria made a point of being at public events with her husband whenever possible. A week before the election both Joseph and Maria gave a speech about the Cessation Decision, both supported remaining within the Central Power. As Maria approached the podium 10 members of the audience rushed the stage and she was brutally stabbed and died moments later. Her murderers were never convicted, and many say her brother Samuel Stanton killed each one himself. Samuel was driven into a rage by his sister's death and many claimed he was insane, a fact which did not help his brother-in-law's campaign. Joseph essentially placed his brother-in-law under house arrest after his diatribe against Mark Wolv at his sister's funeral, blaming the current mayor for his sister's murder. The two men were extremely close and eventually Samuel married Joseph's sister Claire. The most recent information regarding the Stanton family is that Samuel and Claire Stanton have a daughter named Emily. She was born shortly before the Information Lockdown in 19XX however, and an exact date is unknown._

"Found anything interesting?" Uncle Peter asked looking over his nephew's shoulder, causing him to jump.

"Something new." Tom replied.

"Why are you so interested in the Stantons? They disappeared when the Cessation Decision was made."

"I think my friend is Samuel and Claire's daughter."

His uncle did a double take. "You're friends with..." he consulted the article, "Emily Stanton?"

"I think so. It seems unlikely that another Emily Stanton would have parents named Samuel and Claire. I don't think she knows about her aunt and uncle though."

"Why wouldn't -" He stopped as Thomas pointed to two words on the screen, _I__nformation Lockdown. _Tom had heard about it many times, seen it mentioned in countless books he borrowed from the university's library and still he didn't fully comprehend what it meant or why it had happened.

"But she's his niece," Peter protested, "surely she's at least heard of him."

"I'd never heard of the Toleration of Cessation Decision until I came here. Technology and information are the same in my city, nonexistent."

They sat in silence for a moment, both stewing over the unpleasant reality that thousands of people lived a few days away from technology that could change their lives, and they knew nothing about it.

"You should write to her, tell her about her family."

"What do I tell her? That her uncle _might_ be the man who opposed Wolv, her aunt _might _have been brutally murdered and her father _might_ be a murderer?"

"Better question: Can you _not _tell her?"


	25. Chapter 25

_Dear Emily,_

_I discovered something more about the Cessation Decision. It was voted on in our city after the election for mayor in 19XX, and I think your uncle ran against Mayor Wolv. The man who ran against Wolv was named Joseph Stanton, and he had a wife named Maria who had a brother named Samuel. Maria was murdered during the campaign, and her brother was nearly driven insane. There's a story that he killed her murderers before Joseph essentially put him under house arrest. The two of them were very close, and later, after he mellowed out, Samuel married Joseph's sister Claire. The most recent news here is that they had a daughter named Emily._

_I didn't think that it'd be worth bringing up Joseph Stanton before, there are probably a dozen people with the last name Stanton living in our city. But I don't think there are any other's named Emily Stanton who also have parents named Samuel and Claire. Do you know if you have an uncle named Joseph? If you do, why isn't he doing anything about how awful things are? He doesn't seem like he'd give up that easily, at least that's not how the history books write him._

_Love,_

_Tom_

Emily read through the letter again to make sure she understood what Tom was saying. Her uncle had been married? She'd met her Uncle Joseph exactly three times in her life, and her father had told her many stories about him. Never had it been mentioned that he had once been married. Although, if Tom was right about him being the same man who ran against Mayor Wolv and his wife was murdered, he had good reason not to bring it up.

Albert came in the front door with Sam, the two had attempted to coax Sam's only ball out of the branches of the tree in the backyard where it had lodged itself after dinner yesterday. From the looks on their faces Emily surmised that they had been unsuccessful. Albert gave the paper in Emily's hand a puzzled look.

"Another letter from Tom?" They'd sent their latest replies to him just yesterday, he couldn't possibly have received them yet, much less replied. To answer him Emily handed him the letter. The puzzled look already on Albert's face didn't change much as he read. Emily dismissed Sam to his room to do homework before Albert finished reading.

"Do you have an Uncle Joseph?"

"I've met him three times, and dad had a million stories about him. I never knew he was married though, or that he ran for Mayor."

Silence reigned in the kitchen for another five minutes while Emily tried to imagine her uncle as a politician and married, and Albert tried to figure out why Tom would tell her this.

"When's the last time you saw him?" He asked as he handed the letter back to her.

"Before Mom died, I was... ten I think. No, I saw him at Dad's funeral, but he didn't talk to me."

They were quiet for another minute, both contemplating what they could do with the information now.

"Do you think we could find him?" Emily asked.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he crossed the room to her before answering. "We could try, I imagine you have a few questions for him."

She nodded slowly, "would he be on record at the mine?"

"We would have sent him a letter when your dad died. I can look him up."

"I wonder..." Emily began and then trailed off, as if she didn't know that she'd spoken out loud.

"What?" She looked up at him startled before she answered.

"If mom would have listed him in the factory records, he was her brother, so the factory would have sent him a letter too."

"If he's not in one place he'll be in the other. Can you get those records?"

Emily bit her lip and looked back down, before when she was working in the offices of the factory there would have been no question. A few years ago though the factory had been taken over by a rival company and all the office employee's had been given a choice, take a job in the warehouse of the factory for half the pay, or be left to find a job on their own.

"I might. They're a bit picky about people being in the offices if they don't work there. And they might have moved the records. He might have moved since the letter's been sent too."

"Well it's a place to start."

She nodded and sighed, "I just wish he'd told me. He opposed the Mayor for pity's sake, he could have prevented the Cessation Decision, and the Information Lockdown and all these things that most people don't even know about. But he lost the race and then, just... disappeared," she finished angrily.

Albert put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You were ten, Em."

"Not at the funeral. Why didn't he talk to me? He just came and went without even saying hello."

"Maybe he didn't want to tell you about your dad's past that day."

Emily leaned forward with her elbows on the table and her head in her hands, "Do you think he was a murderer? That he killed a person?"

Albert tried to ignore the memory of the last time he stood by a friend with their head in their hands. Many memories of such a situation pushed themselves to the front of his mind; when Tom had decided to leave, when Emily's factory was reorganized, when Emily had stood by him after his grandmother's death. He pushed them all away and pulled Emily up from her chair and into a hug. "We'll figure it out Em."

She sighed, "We'll figure it out."

**notes: **If you have two minutes to spare please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.


	26. Chapter 26

Surprise and then dread showed clearly on Joseph Stanton's face when he came around the corner to see his niece and her family heading into his apartment building. For a moment he considered turning around and staying at HQ until he was sure they'd left. Then he remembered how he'd felt leaving Samuel's funeral without speaking to her. As he set off up the street he wondered first how old his niece was, and then when she had gotten married. The little boy was at least eight and must have been at both Claire and Samuel's funerals, but he did not remember that.

They were still outside the door to his apartment as he came up the stairs. He pushed past them, ignoring their shocked faces, and headed in. When they didn't follow him he turned to look his niece in the face.

"If you plan on asking me questions you'd better come inside. I've got a few to ask you as well." He gave the young man with her a pointed look before continuing into the apartment's tiny kitchen. After a second's hesitation the trio followed him inside.

"Why did you bring the boy with you?" He asked as he set his bag on a chair.

"Maybe because I didn't have any family to have him stay with."

"Point taken, you're here to chastise me for my failure as an uncle then?" He removed a folder from the bag and settled in at the table as if this conversation were only mildly interesting.

"No, I'm here to get some answers."

Now he looked up at her. "What makes you think I owe you any? You owe me as many explanations as I owe you. How long have you been married?"

She looked at him as if he'd grown a third arm out of his head, "married?" She asked in an incredulous voice.

"Don't tell me the two of you have an eight year old boy, and are not married." He glanced at her left hand searching for a ring, seeing none he turned on the man. "You have stuck with her for eight years and don't have the guts to marry her?" He exploded, his voice quickly rising in volume.

"Sam is my brother," Emily shouted back bringing her hand down on the table, Albert placed a calming hand on her arm but didn't make any further move to stop her "and Albert is my friend. He's been helping us out since Dad died, and doing a lot better job of it then you."

"Your brother?" He turned to examine his nephew, and realized that he did have Claire's face.

"He was at both my parent's funerals, you don't remember him?" Emily continued, more quietly, but still angry.

"I had a few other things on my mind on those occasions. During your mother's funeral I was trying to keep your father sane and avoid him going on another murdering rampage, at your father's I was debating how much you knew and what I should tell you. I wasn't paying attention to the details."

"Sam is not a detail!" She was shouting again, Joseph noted unhappily. He did not want his niece to be mad at him, but he didn't want her to get involved with him either. He wasn't Mayor Wolv's favorite person, and he wanted the story of at least one member of his family to have a happy ending.

"No," he agreed, "but the explanations you are asking for are not happy ones, and he shouldn't hear them until he's older."

"You do not get to make decisions about my brother -" she broke off as Albert pulled slightly on her arm to get her attention.

"Maybe Sam and I should go Em. If half of what Tom said is true, you don't want Sam to hear it."

"Samuel," Joseph Stanton broke in, addressing his nephew, "do you like to read?"

Sam glanced at his sister to see if he should answer the question before replying, "some things."

"There are many books in the next room, why don't you go choose one while we talk."

Sam glanced at his sister again, but ultimately was answered by Albert, who nodded at him while Emily continued to glare at her uncle.

"Sit down. What do you want me to explain?" He asked as they sat and he put his folder of papers away in its bag, careful not to give either of his guests a chance to read them.

"Everything, your role in the Cessation Decision, my father's past -"

"and the war." Albert broke in. "Explain that too. Why do most people not know about it?"

Joseph Stanton took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he gathered his thoughts. "You are part of a generation that knows so much and so little at the same time. You know how to survive the winter on minimum wage and how to feed your families when times are tough. But you know nothing about your past or why you have to endure these things. How you know as much as you do," he looked at Emily hoping to glean some answers there, but she didn't even blink "I don't want to know. I'm not the mayor's favorite person, and the less you associate with me the better. That is why I haven't given you answers, I'm not sure they will do you much good. Do you know what the Central Power is?"

"Vaguely, not enough to be helpful." Albert replied.

"The Central Power was what united the cities before you were born. It -"

"How many cities?" Emily interrupted.

"Twenty? Thirty? A hundred? I don't know. It spread very far, but in some places the cities are far apart and in others they are practically on top of each other and could be counted as one. The Central Power kept things balanced. Most of the time it kept the mayors of each city from being corrupt and too powerful and it ensured peace between the cities.

"Some people thought the Power's job was to keep the cities equal as well. When some cities started developing faster than others is when things got tricky. Originally ideas and innovations were shared between cities easily. Then one smart mayor discovered he could sell the advances of his city at a steep profit. The other cities complained and turned to the Power to sort things out. The Power wasn't sure what it could do though. Nothing about keeping the cities equal was in the documents that founded the Central Power, and there was no similar situation in the past to shed light on the issue either.

"So the Power kept floundering from one solution to the other, and it wasn't just about technology there were a lot of other things, but technology was the big one, and people were becoming a bit frustrated. Finally people like Wolv started speaking against the Power, and started talking about how it wasn't any help and suddenly it became very clear to people. Either you were willing to give the Power some time to sort itself out and trusted it to get things in order eventually, or you were fed up with the bureaucracy and wanted to let people decide how to run things for themselves.

"That's the way it went for a while, people were upset but couldn't do much. Finally one city struck out against the Central Power and the war started. The Power tried to protect the cities that were loyal to it and the cities that wanted to be rid of it attacked at random and without any plan, they didn't think about how to solve their problem they just attacked out of frustration. The Power could have destroyed the hostile cities with the push of a button, and that's how they forced attendance at the Council, with the threat of mass destruction."

"Why didn't they?" Albert asked.

"What?" Both Stanton's looked at him startled.

"Why didn't they just get rid of the cities that were causing trouble?"

"Just get rid of," Joseph murmured under his breath looking to heaven. "Not everyone in the attacking cities wanted to get rid of the Power. I certainly didn't,"

"And if they did what would they win?" Emily interrupted. "If they destroyed those cities they wouldn't gain anything except bad publicity."

"That too." Joseph agreed.

"So it was an empty threat." Albert said before Joseph could continue.

"Come again?"

"They wouldn't have actually blown those cities up if they'd refused to come to the Council."

"Who's to say? No one was willing to call their bluff in any case.

"So the Council convened, eventually they came to the Toleration of Cessation Decision. Saying -"

"That any city who wanted to leave the Power could, and they wouldn't be attacked or bothered in any way." Emily cut in.

Joseph's eyes narrowed, "How do you know that?"

"We have a friend, outside the city." Albert answered for her.

Joseph's eyebrows shot up. "I see; it's good to have friends in the right places. So, as you know -"

"Why would the Power do that?" Albert interrupted.

"What?"

"Why would they let the cities secede? They had forced them to attend the Council with a maybe empty threat, couldn't they force them to stay in the Power?"

Joseph studied Wily's face for a minute before answering. "The Power had already made a concession by negotiating with the cities individually,"

"By convening the Council you mean."

"I suppose. Perhaps the Power decided to cut its losses and let the cities that didn't want it be. Most likely they decided it wasn't worth their while to try to keep the insurgent cities in line.

"So you know what the Toleration of Cessation Decision was and you know how we ended up with a permanent Mayor, with no Power to keep the government honest, being Mayor essentially translated to being dictator. I believe I've explained the war." He tilted his head toward Albert. "So on to your questions." He turned to Emily, "You first mentioned my role in the Cessation Decision. It wasn't big. I'd lost the race for Mayor, I had virtually no influence on the decision. Wolv had control of the City Council after he won the election, and probably before too. But that's not what you want to hear about." He raised a hand stopping Emily from interrupting. "The race for Mayor and your father's part, yes?" She nodded silently and he continued.

"The Toleration of Cessation Decision was made in August, I was already tied into the race for Mayor. When the decision was made it changed the entire focus of the campaign. It was no longer about how you'd deal with the Central Power, it was whether you'd stay in it. Wolv was against remaining in the Power, I was for it. That's what the vote boiled down to, that and how many people Wolv's thugs could convince to vote for him regardless of their own honest opinions.

"There has never been an honest election in this city, and there probably never will be. Every man who has run for an office here has lied, slandered and blackmailed his way down the campaign trail, me included." He looked right into Emily's eyes while he finished that statement and refused to let her look away. "This time it was especially bloody. Maria and I were guarded at all times. When Maria wasn't with me she was at a safe house and no one knew where that was except for a select few. Maria however, did not like the idea of being kept under lock and key while I was out fighting to change the city. Most of the time she was with me while I was campaigning. It was a family thing, your father and aunts' names were almost synonymous with mine. We were the Stantons, known throughout the city, and we were going to change things if we won.

"The week before the election, on Halloween, I was giving a speech in a park. Maria and your father were with me, the topic of the night was the Cessation Decision of course; the topic was always the Cessation Decision. No matter how many times it was discussed there was always another question, another point that could be discussed.

"I can still see the stage," His voice dropped almost to a whisper, and he appeared to be looking past Emily now, even though he hadn't moved his head. "There were guards in front of it of course, and there were people in front of them, some came to see us, some stopped to listen on their way through the park. There were more people there that evening because of Halloween. I sat near the back of the stage with Maria and Sam. Claire was across town overseeing some rally. I stood up and gave my speech, I couldn't tell you what I said now but it seemed important and memorable then.

"Then she stood up. We walked past each other, I gave her a kiss. It was part of the image we were projecting, we were the happy, young couple with a vision for whatever family may come, or was coming," he looked down furtively for a moment before continuing, "I had my back turned. I was about to turn and sit down when Sam jumped up. When I turned around there were guards surrounding me and I could just see her surrounded by men who I'd seen in the crowd a moment before. A second later they jumped off the stage.

"Your dad was yelling. The guards chased them down, I asked your dad if he'd seen who it was. 'I'll never forget a single one of their faces.' He answered. That's when I realized it was more than one man attacking her. The whole time I was pushing toward her, finally the guards let me get close.

"She was covered in blood. Six knives stuck out of her chest, and there were at least that many wounds besides. Some bastard had sliced each of her cheeks, leaving a thin mark down each side of her face, ruining it. My beautiful Maria..." His voice caught at the end despite his determination to stay composed. The kitchen was completely silent for several minutes.

Joseph Stanton heaved a sigh and studied his niece's face with world-weary eyes. "I can see her in you. The hair, some of her face..." He sighed again. "Anything else?"

"My dad," Emily swallowed hard, not sure she wanted the answer to this question, "did he..."

"Everyone of them, and if I hadn't stopped him he'd have probably killed anyone who ever seemed remotely loyal to Wolv." He answered quietly.

"How could he..." She started, "I mean he never went to jail or anything, he raised Sam and me..."

"He was never arrested. He killed them while the city was transitioning from the Power to Wolv. For a while there was no functional authority. Your father was a smart man, he took advantage and struck. Within two weeks they all were dead."

"Two weeks? How many?" Emily's eyes were wide.

"10, I believe two of the four days he wasn't murdering Maria's killers were Sundays, a third was her funeral."

"And the last?"

"Her birthday. I think I've answered all your questions now." He glanced at the clock. "It's time for you to get going. If you have more questions don't write a letter, come and talk to me."

He ushered them toward the door, collecting Sam from the office and was about to send them on their way when the door swung open. A young man stood in the doorway with a collection of papers in his arms, "Sorry I'm late."

**notes: **If you have a minute please tell me what you think! Thanks!


	27. Chapter 27

_Dear Tom,_

_You were right about my uncle, we tracked him down on Monday. He ran against Wolv, his wife was murdered and my dad killed her ten murderers in two weeks. Why isn't he doing anything? Be honest Tom, would you be able to get up and keep fighting after losing control of the city, having the woman you loved murdered and the man you could turn to do something so evil? Let me know when you work that out._

_We also met Nicholas on Monday. He was old enough before the Information Lockdown to know who my uncle is and tracked him down. He's trying to bring down Wolv, and Uncle Joseph is trying to help, but there's not a lot they can do. And it's so stupid Tom. If there were no Lockdown it would be so easy to end Wolv. He hasn't bothered changing anything legally, he just has the council under his thumb and keeps being "re-elected" because no one here knows the election is happening. It comes, Wolv's cronies vote him in again, and presto! We have a dictatorship disguised behind democracy. That's half the problem. My uncle won't explain the rest to me. I don't know if he thinks I'm to young to know it or he thinks I won't understand. Either way I'd learned enough about this city for one day and wasn't going to try to get that many answers out of him._

_It's been three years Thomas. When are you going to come home?_

_Emily_

Peter read through the letter his nephew had left on the table once more. He heard the door open behind him and turned to see Thomas Light looking surprised.

"You didn't tell me you had a girl at home!" He said, waving the letter at Thomas.

"I don't. I mean, she's just a friend. And actually I did tell you about her." Tom crossed the room and plucked the letter out of his Uncle's hand. "Emily Stanton," Tom said pointing at the signature on the bottom of the page due to the confused look on his Uncle's face.

"You haven't gone home to see her in three years. You don't have to stay here Tom, you can always go and visit. I didn't know you had a girl at home, otherwise I'd have sent you back to visit a long time ago."

"She's not 'my girl' and what did you think? That I never knew anyone beside my parents? Emily and Albert have been my friends since grade school."

"And you haven't been to visit them in three years. You are taking a vacation Thomas Light. Go pack your bag, I'm dropping you off at the train station tomorrow and I don't want to see you back here for two weeks." He left the room without giving Tom a chance to reply.

* * *

Tom was the only passenger on the southbound train. He spent the time imagining Emily and Albert's reactions to his sudden arrival. He thought about Sam, and how old he was. He remembered Emily's letter earlier that year about Marie Wily, and wished that he could have seen her once more. And he thought about Emily's most recent letter. The city was stuck under Wolv, and it would be so easy to fix things if only he could bring some of the technology back with him. He had wanted to bring something, anything, to show Al and Em; but his uncle had warned him about Wolv's patrols. They would check his bag at the station, and no doubt his letters would be read as well. He'd asked why his letters hadn't been read before, his uncle said that they were usually checked at random and it was luck that they hadn't been stopped yet. No doubt his letters would be checked every time now that he had made a return trip. That did not bode well, Tom planned to return and keep studying with his uncle, but he had to stay in touch with his friends as well. He sighed as he left the train station, that was a problem to worry about later.

Another sigh escaped him as he walked through the desolate, littered streets to his home and remembered what the streets looked like just a little ways north. The boarded up and broken buildings were neat and prosperous shops; the lackluster and broken poor were happy and busy people. Instead of uneven ditches that passed for streets the roads were paved and used frequently, not once or twice a month when the Mayor or his cronies decided to review their conquest.

He glanced up the street to the Wily house where he could see a light in the window. A young boy played in the backyard, but didn't notice as Tom went into the house two doors down. He flipped on the light, expecting the house to be musty and to see an inch of dust on the table. Instead he found the place clean and smelling like someone had recently opened the windows. Both the bedroom doors were open, and he could hear someone in his parents' room. He quickly crossed the room setting his bag on the table as he went.

Emily was hanging Nancy Light's coat which she'd borrowed that winter in the closet, and was contemplating what to do about the musty smell the clothes were garnering; when she heard someone behind her. Her first thought was that one of the many desperate people who lived in the streets had followed her in. Turning slowly around she reached for the nearest heavy object she could find, which turned out to be Nancy Light's sewing box. Holding this up defensively she faced the intruder, and after seeing who it was, promptly dropped the box and sent its contents scattering.

"Tom!" she exclaimed, flying across the room to greet him. "When did you get back? What are you doing here? Are you staying? How is your uncle and his family?"

The questions continued as she herded him back through the kitchen, collected his bag, and then led him down the street to the Wily house. He answered them all, and then again when Al asked them. Before he knew it they were sitting down to eat and he was still telling them stories about the last three years; and soon Tom began asking them questions, getting the full story about Joseph Stanton, Emily's job, Samuel's school and a chance to eat.

When all the stories that immediately came to mind had been told, and Sam had been sent to bed, Albert asked the question Tom had been waiting for since he'd set foot in the house.

"So what's your plan Tom?" Albert looked him straight in the eye and the friendly look that had been on his face most of the evening gave way to a very stern one.

Tom took a deep breath and let it out slowly before answering. The room had suddenly got very quiet and Emily no longer smiled as she brewed a pot of coffee for the three of them. "I want to meet Joseph Stanton, learn what else is keeping Wolv in power. Then... we'll see from there."

"You're staying though?" Al asked.

"I don't know. I will see what we can do now about Wolv. But after that, I'll probably go back and learn more, and bring some of the technology here."

"Whoever decided that we were doing something about Wolv?" Emily asked setting two cups of coffee on the table and going back for a third. She turned back to a stunned silence and the incredulous looks both men had. "What? It's a good idea yes, but who decided that we were going to try to stop Wolv?"

"Don't you want to make things better here?" Al asked, his voice suddenly steely.

"Of course! But when did we say, or who decided"

"We didn't decide." Tom interrupted. "We just are."

Emily studied his face for another minute. "All right. We are."

For another few hours the three discussed possible ways to stop Wolv, and how to get Joseph to explain more about what kept him in power. Early in the morning Tom walked back to his house, exhausted, but satisfied.


	28. Chapter 28

Nicholas saw Emily and her friends from the apartment's kitchen window. He glanced at Joseph through the door to the office and saw him bent over the desk muttering to himself under his breath. For a minute a silent debate over whether to warn Joseph about his niece's impending visit waged inside him. Nicholas had been extremely irked with how Joseph had treated her during her first visit. He hadn't bothered finding out that his niece had a brother, didn't bother mentioning her to his companion of over ten years and numerous life or death situations, and, he'd tried to get her out the door before he'd shown up. However, there were a number of documents spread across the apartment that Joseph likely didn't want anyone outside HQ to see.

"Emily's on her way. There's someone new with her." He said turning back to the window.

"What?"

"Em-" Nicholas didn't get a chance to finish repeating himself. Joseph grabbed him by the elbow and steered him out the door.

"We'll head them off. Darn it, that girl has horrible timing. I don't have time for a long, painful discussion today!"

"When do you?"

Joseph shot him a dirty look before continuing down the stairs two at a time and muttering under his breath about young people and their horrible manners.

Emily brought the trio to a halt on the sidewalk as she spotted her uncle and Nicholas coming towards them. Thomas studied Joseph Stanton's face as he approached where they had stopped in front of the entrance to an unkempt park. He tried to reconcile the grizzled beard, thinning hair and the eyes full of deep pain with the hero that his uncle's city made him out to be.

The two groups stood facing each other for a silent minute before Emily spoke. "Uncle Joseph, this is Tom."

"The one who's been outside the city." Joseph said by way of greeting as he gave Tom a firm handshake.

"How did you know...?" He asked startled.

"You look at this city the same way I do. There's got to be something better, something more alive, right?"

Tom nodded as he stared at him incredulously, shocked by how Joseph had managed to put his emotions into words.

"Where'd you leave your brother?" Joseph asked turning back to Emily.

"With friends."

"Have you suddenly acquired some since the last time we met?"

"I didn't ask them last time. Why do you care?"

Joseph sighed, "I do care Emily."

"Really?" She asked, taking a step closer to him and speaking in a low, frustrated pitch. "Then where have you been the last three years? Where were you after Dad died?"

He sighed again, then turned toward the park. "Let's take a walk, I can show you where your Aunt died on the way." He marched into the park, leaving Emily and the three men there for a minute. After shooting Nicholas a questioning glance, and discovering from the expression on his face that he had no idea where this was going either, she let her morbid curiosity get the better of her. She set off after her uncle with Albert right behind her, and Tom and Nicholas trailing behind them.

She caught up with where he had stopped on the trail facing towards an open area of dead grass and weeds. The remnants of a stage were spread across it, like the scattered skeleton of some long dead animal. Tom and Nicholas were still far behind them when she and Albert came to a silent stop beside him, studying the remains, without needing to ask why he'd stopped there.

"We were going to change the world." Joseph said in a cracked voice. After a few more moments of silence he continued. "So much for that, there's no way we can do anything now."

Emily took a breath to speak, but he cut her off. "No, I know what I'm talking about Emily Stanton. This city, it's dead. It has been for years. We fought the darkness -" he stopped to draw breath, but Albert finished the sentence for him.

"The darkness won." He said in a low tone. Emily glanced over her shoulder at him and saw the forbidding look on his face, and the storm behind his eyes.

"Why did I never come Emily?" He asked as Tom and Nicholas came up behind them to study the dead stage. He turned toward her now, "You were better off without me. This city may be dead," he looked past her to meet Nicholas' eyes, "but there are still some of us trying to breathe life back into it."

Standing right behind him, Tom heard Nicholas' sharp breath at that phrase. Standing facing the rest of the group, Joseph saw his shock at the hint to HQ. He paid it no heed and continued.

"The trouble is, there's no point to anything we do. This city can't be fixed. We're fighting a hopeless battle. So, you are better off without knowing me."

He met Emily's eyes to address only her now, "I can only bring hardship."

Silence stood in the park for a full minute before Nicholas spoke.

"You told me that years ago."

"And you were foolish enough to stick around. How many times have you almost died?"

"As many as you."

Joseph sighed yet again as he turned back to the broken skeleton of a stage. The group was silent for several minutes before Tom spoke.

"How?"

The group turned to him confused.

"How are you trying to fix this city? From what they've told me, it should be pretty easy. Inform people, tell them that they have an opportunity to get rid of Wolv..."

"He has more weapons than ignorance, sadly."

"Such as?"

Joseph studied the faces of the three friends, then he looked at Nicholas. He knew that his young friend would be against this, he would consider it one of Joseph's worst decisions among many. But... He looked back at Emily. He'd abandoned her, left her in the dark. She didn't seem to care that she might be better off away from him. She'd tracked him down, demanded answers. He looked to her two friends. He'd done his homework and checked up on the one, Wily, after their last encounter. He hadn't expected the other to come back, but it showed something about his character that he did. He chewed on the idea a minute longer. Emily obviously trusted the two, and she likely wouldn't agree to leave them behind. Nor would they be likely to let her go on by herself. And Nicholas of course...

"This way." He said, coming to a decision. He led the confused group further into the park, despite the harsh looks he could feel coming from Nicholas on the back of his head.

* * *

Nicholas wouldn't have been surprised if a roiling black cloud was hanging over his head. This was a bad idea, one of Joseph's worst. Joseph had his brilliant moments, and it would be a mistake to say he was too trusting, in fact the opposite might be true. However, he tended to ignore reason when he really wanted to do something, or when he really wanted something to be true.

Nicholas followed them into the tall, dilapidated building that served as HQ. The building was dark except for a few lights visible in some of the higher windows, and most of the lower windows were broken. In the heart of the city it blended in perfectly.

He was only half listening to what Joseph was saying as they walked in. He didn't really care what was being said anyway. Essentially what it'd boil down to would be: "Wolv could turn half the city into a crater with the push of a button if he wanted to, so we need to tread lightly when we're trying to thwart him." More or less, give or take some explanations and dramatic effect. In any case Nicholas was distracted when he walked in the doors of HQ by the sight of Gwen. Slipping away from the group he joined his wife on her way upstairs.

"Done for the day?" He asked taking her hand as they climbed.

"For now, the Council's been let out until two. Who was with Joseph?"

"His niece and her friends. He's giving them the full tour I'm sure. Learn anything interesting?"

"Nothing besides the usual proposals for tax hikes and increased weapons development. We have to keep up with the Power you know." She rolled her eyes at that. "I didn't know Joseph had a niece."

"Neither did I. At least the mayor isn't pulling any surprises on us today. Is Joe at Anne's?" He asked as they climbed past the third floor.

"Yes, I'm on my way there, we were going to have lunch together. You should join us."

"You don't think Anne will mind?"

She laughed and pulled him through the door leading from the stairwell to the fourth floor. A few moments later they stepped into Anne's modest apartment. As soon as he caught sight of his parents Joe rushed to the door.

Gwen knelt to give her six-year-old son a hug. Working as a double agent and leading a small resistance movement didn't leave much time for the three to spend as a family, but they made do with what they had. Nicholas picked his son up off the floor to say hello after Gwen had moved aside and gone to greet Anne.

"How are you buddy?" Nicholas asked as he carried Joe back into the apartment to the table for lunch.

"Hungry." Joe replied, bringing a smile to his father's face. "Will Mom be back before I go to bed tonight?"

"Maybe, we'll see how long the Council keeps at it tonight. My guess is she'll be home just in time to say goodnight."

Nicholas' black mood had improved slightly when he'd found Gwen, but the appearance of his son's namesake shortly after lunch threw him back into the cynicism. Joseph stuck his head in the door and beckoned with one hand. With a sigh Nicholas picked Joe up off his lap and sent him to play with Anne's kids. He leaned over and swiped a kiss from Gwen before sullenly heading downstairs.

"What?" Nicholas asked closing the door to Joseph's office behind him sharply and leaning back on it with arms crossed.

Joseph looked up at the tone, "Why are you angry with me?"

"Did you finish giving your tour?" he asked pointedly.

"We can trust them." Joseph turned back to a paper on his desk, dismissing the problem.

"And what makes you think that? You hadn't met the other one until today."

"He's been outside the city, and we know we can trust the other two, Christopher checked on them last week."

"Why don't we start recruiting from outside then?" Nicholas asked with a snort.

"You know why, Wolv would notice."

"Hmph, you don't think he'll notice one of his own came in here?"

"Gwen's careful, you of all people should know. Besides, Wolv doesn't know there is a base."

"I wasn't talking about Gwen." Nicholas crossed the room, grabbing a folding chair from the card table covered in papers and dragging it behind him as he went. He put it backward in front of Joseph's desk and sat down. "I was talking about Thomas. He worked in the Mayor's office."

"3 years ago yes, he was desperate for money, didn't have any options and shortly after lost both his parents. Then he moved north to live with his uncle and learn. We talked about this over lunch."

"And where is he now?"

"I believe he went home. They'll all be back tomorrow."

"Why?" Nicholas asked in an extremely aggravated tone. "Why were they here in the first place, what possible reason can you have for bringing outsiders who can't help us in here?"

"They can help us Nicholas. Thomas has been on the outside, he's seen what this can be like. He wants to change this city, a lot like another young man I knew several years ago." Joseph gave him a pointed look. "I had to bring them here, the same way I had to bring you here. They came looking for hope and a way to change things."

"And just how," Nicholas answered, fighting to keep an even tone in his voice, "will they help us change things?"

"Thomas knows about those weapons that Wolv has, he's studied how they're made in the city further north."

"Studied." Nicholas put in skeptically.

"Yes, which is a lot more than you or I can say."

"And a lot less than I'd like to trust a plan too."

"Do you have one he can practice on?" Joseph asked, giving Nicholas a good, long stare.

"He's studied them," Joseph continued, his point made, "that combined with the fact that Wolv is 'reelected' every term -"

"We can't use that loophole, you've said a thousand times -"

"Before we couldn't because Wolv would blow us out of the sky if we tried to. But because Thomas can get rid of those -"

"How?"

"He has an idea from what he's learned further north -"

"From when he's _studied_ them."

"Again, do you have a way for him to test it?"

"No, but we could send him with Gwen, maybe he can learn something more, help inspect them or something."

"Gwen doesn't have access to that."

"You haven't asked her! She doesn't now but she might be able to swing something for us."

"Swing something?" Joseph stared at him with one eyebrow raised.

"Isn't that what you're talking about? Swinging this operation around the idea that some kid that's happened to spend some time reading farther north might be able to make this work?"

Joseph glared at Nicholas. "They'll be here tomorrow. Ask Gwen tonight about getting close to the weapons with Thomas. We'll discuss it then, I want her there."

"I'll see if the mayor is willing to oblige." Nicholas sneered, giving Joseph one last glare on his way out the door, and muttering to himself down the hall to the lab.


	29. Chapter 29

Nicholas stood with his arms crossed in front of the mess of maps and notes scattered across the table. Joseph had gone to wait for Emily, Albert, and Thomas, leaving Nichols to his thoughts and doubts. Gwen stood across from him and scribbled across a notepad while reading a report. Nicholas picked up the report that had been the most disappointing for him. Thomas Light, spotless record, worked for the Mayor but never got mixed up in the darkest parts of the capitol. Son of Henry and Nancy Light, Nicholas mulled that name over for a moment, Henry Light, he made a mental note to look him up later, although the report said he'd died a few years ago in the mines. Most likely he'd never done anything besides dig in the dirt all his life. Still, the name sounded familiar, maybe he'd been important before the Cessation and Information Lockdown. Nicholas scrunched the report in his fist and pocketed it as Joseph led the group in.

"You've met Nicholas," Joseph said closing the door behind them, "his wife Gwen."

Gwen nodded, not looking up as she finished writing. "Emily," she said shaking her hand as she set the notepad aside, "and..."

"Albert," Emily said as Gwen shook his hand, "and Tom."

"You the one who need to see the weapons." Gwen said as she took Tom's hand.

"That'd be ideal."

"Would the Mayor recognize you from three years ago?"

"Probably."

"Mmm," Gwen said biting her lip and turning back to her notepad. She looked up at Joseph then back to her paper.

"Do you have an idea Gwen?" Joseph asked.

"Maybe..." She looked at Tom, "you're not going to like it."

"I'm not particularly fond of the way this city is run either."

"Well if you don't like getting a little bruised, we can bring you into the weapons base right under Wolv's nose."

"How?"

"See this is the part you won't like..."

* * *

"I think you did your part a little too well Al." Tom commented as his eyes teared up. Emily leaned over him concerned, dabbing at his bleeding nose. "Em," he protested gently pushing her away, "the point is for my face to be a mess so the mayor can't recognize me."

"I still can't believe you agreed to this," she said ignoring his protests and wiping more of the blood off his face, "either of you." She shot Albert a glare at that, before being simultaneously pulled away by Albert and pushed away by Tom.

"An opportunity to beat up my best friend without retribution? How can I turn that up?" Wily asked taking the formerly white cloth from her.

"Like I said Al, I think you might have done it too well. If my nose is broken -"

"You won't need me to mess your face up later because the mayor still won't recognize you."

"Fabulous." Emily said, rolling her eyes. "Ready?"

Tom glanced in the mirror on the wall of the surprisingly large wardrobe that Joseph had at HQ. His face was a mottled mess of bruises and a significant amount of blood was stemming from his nose. "Do you think anyone will recognize me?"

"I doubt it." Gwen said coming in with two men wearing the same uniforms as Wolv's security men. Emily shuddered involuntarily, she knew that they were members of her uncle's group, but she also knew that their job was to act like they'd captured Tom, and rough him up to convince the mayor if necessary. Although, Al had done a good job of that. She glanced back at his impassive face, then rolled her eyes again. _Men_, she sighed, _they could beat their best friend up one minute, and act completely calm the next._

"Ready?" Gwen continued, "good, let's go."

Emily followed the group down the stairs into the entrance to HQ where her uncle was waiting for them.

"Right, you two get out of here. Be at the train station in 10 minutes." He waved a hand at the two security men, who quickly disappeared out the front door.

"Em," he stared at her. Joseph hadn't wanted his niece to get mixed up in the actual operation of overthrowing Wolv. However, he knew that, like all Stanton women, she wasn't going to let her friends take all the risks while she did nothing. He sighed, "Go out the back door in two minutes, good luck." He sighed watching her walk away.

"Gwen, get going, you'll be late." He nodded at her as she left, "Nicholas, upstairs, as soon as you're done saying good-bye." He added as Nicholas pulled his wife aside before she left. "Albert, walk with me." He said leaving Gwen and Nicholas as he followed Emily toward the back of the building. When they reached the door she'd left just seconds ago he turned toward Wily.

"I know you're supposed to keep an eye on Tom and his party. Do me a favor -"

"Watch Emily too? I was already planning on it."

Joseph studied the face of this young man who Emily trusted so well, who'd also seemed surprisingly quick to agree to beating his friend's face beyond recognition. _There's definitely something hard behind the eyes, but,_ Joseph thought,_ he's taken better care of Emily then I have._ He nodded, "off you go then."


	30. Chapter 30

Emily wrapped her borrowed jacket around her and slumped into the doorway of an abandoned building alongside the train station. A few men sat collapsed against another building near the station. She pulled the scarf Gwen had insisted on further over her hair. A few moments later a young man walked into the station, struggling with a half full wooden crate.

Emily watched him sit down on a bench, apparently waiting for a train. He leaned down and picked up a picture frame from the top of a pile of clothes. She straightened up a bit to see the picture better. A young woman smiled from behind the broken glass of the picture frame. The man sighed, and set the picture back in the crate before staring down the tracks.

Emily turned her attention to the man she knew to be Tom coming down the street. He stumbled as he came up behind the bench that the first man was sitting on startling him. He quickly moved further down the solitary bench giving Tom and his bleeding face a wide berth.

Albert appeared along the building then, unseen by everyone except Emily. She stood and shuffled out of the train station, along the main road. On her way back to HQ she saw the two fake security men, headed toward the train station.

Joseph watched the road outside HQ from a window in his office as Emily came around the corner. "Go ahead," he called to Nicholas who sat at the desk. He picked up the phone.

* * *

Albert watched the two men in uniform enter the train station. The man with the crate turned toward them alarmed as they advanced toward the bench. Tom stood up and took two steps backward.

"Flaherty!" one of the security men shouted. "Going somewhere?"

Tom retreated a few more steps. "No, no, I..." The other man ran for it, leaving the crate of everything he owned on the platform.

The man who spoke grabbed Tom's arm, "You were just on your way back to base, right?" He continued addressing Tom, for the sake of the remaining two men on the platform, "Call base." He snapped at his partner, who shuffled off to the police phone that probably hadn't been used since before Wolv had taken over.

* * *

Gwen sat in the conference room at the Capitol building, awaiting the call from Nicholas. As Wolv stood up to speak the phone on the desk in front of her caused nearly everyone in the room to jump with its sharp ring. She picked it up immediately.

"See you soon." Nicholas said, then hung up right away. Gwen kept the phone to her ear.

"Yes," she paused for a minute. "Right away."

"Mayor," She turned towards him, "The security force has caught one of the men working on the new weapons trying to escape the city." A ripple of shock floated around the room. "If I may, I'd like to go with the car to pick them up."

Wolv squinted at this junior member of his Council, weighing her known loyalty and this new risk. "Alert me when you return," he said as he left the room, not bothering to adjourn the meeting.

* * *

Albert watched as the car slid up to the station and Gwen climbed out. She strode across the station with two real security guards behind her. Tom looked her in the eye as she approached ahead of her guards. "Wolv wants to see you." She muttered under her breath. "Fortunately Albert did a good number on your face."

Tom glanced toward where Albert was supposed to be watching him and then back to Gwen. "Keep your eyes down." She whispered as the guards caught up to her. "Get him in the car." She ordered Joseph's men. They marched Tom back to the car before the real guards could touch him.

Albert watched the car pull away from the station before walking back to HQ. As soon as the car had left the two men who'd witnessed the whole scene descended on the crate left by the bench.

* * *

Gwen made sure that Joseph's fake security guards stuck to Tom all the way to Wolv's office door. Then she gave them the signal to get out of the Capitol and back to HQ.

"What have you found?" Wolv asked as she followed Tom into the mayor's office.

Gwen hadn't planned on this detour right into the heart of the Capitol, but years working as a double agent had ingrained some idea of how things were around the mayor.

"He was trying to get out of the city, his wife was supposed to meet him at the platform." She lied.

"Bit young to have a wife." Wolv said skeptically, trying to study Tom's face. Tom refused to look at him though, keeping his eyes on the floor. "What happened to his face?" Even from that angle Wolv could see the bruises.

"The guards had trouble when they caught him."

"And his wife?"

"They saw her running from the station."

"Mmm," Wolv continued to study the top of Tom's head, waiting for him to lift his face.

"What do you expect us to do to you Mr. ..." He turned toward Gwen for the name.

"Flaherty." She replied automatically.

Tom still didn't look up.

"Look at me Mr. Flaherty." Tom slowly lifted his face just high enough to see the mayor's chin, avoiding his eyes.

"I said look at me." Wolv took two swift steps across the room and grabbed Tom's chin forcing him to look up at him. He stared into this uncooperative man's eyes, letting him see the anger simmering behind them. "If I could," he tightened his grip on Tom's chin as Tom stared back at him, "I'd have you sent off to the mines where you wouldn't ever see the light of day again." Wolv muttered in an undertone. "Fortunately for you," Wolv let his nails dig into the side of Tom's face along his jawbone, "I'm short of scientists right now. You will go back down there, and you will make our weapons better. And if you don't," Wolv gripped Tom even tighter, trying to destroy the defiance he saw in him, "I'll have your wife brought in here, and keep her here, until you obey me." There, now he broke. "Do we understand each other?" Tom struggled to nod his head. Wolv released him. "Take him downstairs." He said to Gwen, moving back behind his desk. "I want progress Mr. Flaherty, soon."

Gwen led Tom out the door. The minute it clicked behind her Wolv crossed the room to open the door to what Gwen had assumed was a closet.

"Have him followed," Wolv said to the man behind the door.


	31. Chapter 31

Albert watched Tom's progress up the street from the doorway of a ramshackle storefront, careful not to meet his eyes, because he was certain that Tom was being very carefully monitored. A few minutes after Tom passed a man stepped out of a tumbled building across the street and silently followed him for a few blocks before entering another dilapidated structure. A few seconds later another man rose up from where he'd been slumped against a broken wall and repeated the procedure. Albert had seen what he needed. He stepped inside the store, located the telephone Gwen had said was planted there and called Joseph.

"Trouble," Joseph said meeting Gwen and Nicholas' curious eyes as he hung up the phone. "Tom's being followed."

Silence reigned in the room for a few moments as they contemplated what to do, acutely aware that every moment they hesitated Tom was in more danger.

"So he can't come here and he can't go home." Gwen whispered. "He'll have to go to the apartments across town then."

"And just how do you plan to get him there?" Joseph asked, his doubt evident.

"Call Emily up here," She turned to Nicholas as Joseph made the call down to Anne's apartment where Emily and Sam were waiting for Tom and Albert's return. "Can you cause a distraction?"

"You mean drive 'that contraption' as you call it straight down the main avenue of the city, hope Tom doesn't freak out when he sees it, and has the sense to get the heck out of there? Yeah I can do that."

"And with as many of Wolv's men following you as you can manage while still making it home without your cover blown and in one piece," she added, looping an invention of her own onto his ear. It was essentially a glorified walkie-talkie. Instead of needing to hold it in his hand and press a button to begin transmission the device was always on and looped over the ear letting the operative given this hi-tech device do other things, like drive motorcycles. "Someone needs to contact Albert so he can grab Tom and tell him where to go when the opportunity presents itself, sometime while you're leading Wolv's men on a merry chase. And we'll need time to get the apartment set up. I'm going to go over and put in a telephone so he can communicate with us, we'll need to fill the building with our own people so Wolv can't get in," she nodded at Joseph and he began calling all over the building to arrange that, "and we'll need Tom's belongings gathered from his house and brought there." She directed the last statement at Emily who had just walked in the door.

"And one of our operatives can't do that because?" Joseph questioned, covering the speaker of the phone as the call went through.

"Because part of Tom's cover was that his wife was to meet him at the station and when the guards showed up she ran."

Joseph slammed down the telephone as realization dawned on him. "No! We have plenty of experienced agents…"

"Who Tom doesn't even know the name of. Wolv would be onto them in a second, these two at least have a shot at pulling it off.

"I can handle this," Emily said staring her uncle in the eye.

He looked from one woman to the next for a few moments. "I'm giving you a guard," he declared reaching for the telephone again. "Gwen give each of them one of those… things."

Gwen handed a headset to Emily and led the group out the door.

"I'm guessing I should put the scarf over this," Emily said pulling the swath of cloth out of her pocket from earlier that day.

"Leave it." Gwen said, taking the scarf from her.

"You said my hair was distinctive, shouldn't I…"

"We can use that to our advantage. If we need to put a double in for you they won't be scrutinized nearly as much if they have the distinct auburn hair."

"Do you have another person with auburn hair?"

"No, but what we're lacking in technology we make up for in creativity. Have you ever thought about keeping your hair short?" Gwen asked opening the door to the wardrobe, which Emily remembered now, had a hairdresser's and wig-maker's tools.

She looked at Gwen incredulously for a moment, then to heaven. "The things I do for you Thomas Light." She pulled the clip out of her hair, the birthday gift from Al, and followed Gwen.

* * *

Tom was more than a little worried now. Albert had refused to meet his eyes and had yet to give the signal to head back to HQ. He was still following Tom as they wandered the city in no particular direction. To get his mind off the gnawing worry inside him he contemplated the problem before him. He'd recognized the weapons he'd been taken to work on, they would cause mass destruction if Wolv decided to use them, but they were fairly simple in concept. As for how to sabotage them… he had a few ideas.

He was just about to wander back across the main avenue when he heard the sound of a motor coming around the corner. He turned to see a motorcycle speeding down the street, an unusual sight but not unheard of. The fact that the driver was speeding straight toward the capitol and screaming abuse at Wolv, that was strange. As Tom watched it's progress up the street he caught sight of Albert across the street, for a moment the two locked eyes, then Al tilted his head toward a store across the way. Tom turned away from Al and watched the motorcycle disappear around the corner, pursued by a number of people before joining Al in the supermarket.

After wandering for a while Al joined him in pretending to examine the canned vegetables. "You're being followed." He muttered under his breath.

Panic threatened to overwhelm Tom as he forced himself to breath normally. "Plan?"

"Buy these, take them home to your lovely wife." Al chose a can of peas off the shelf and handed them to Tom, along with the note containing Tom's new address he'd been holding in his hand as he picked them up.

"Wife?" Tom asked, extremely confused as he furtively pretended to pull the paper out of his pocket and then read it.

"You told Wolv," Al glanced around, "that you have a wife."

"Actually," Tom said, returning the paper to his pocket, "Gwen did. Fantastic. And you?"

"Making sure you get there. The building is full of Joseph's people, but still, be careful. We'll call later tonight." He headed down the aisle and disappeared. Tom examined the address once more before leaving the store.

He didn't see Albert as he left but he was certain he was still there. Tom walked quickly now, eager to be done with this adventure. He momentarily panicked as he approached the building, realizing that he didn't have a key. He quickly calmed down certain that Gwen, Nicholas and Joseph would have thought of that and made sure his "wife" was there to let him in. Nonetheless he was surprised as Emily came flying down the walk to hug him.

"What are you doing?" He hissed under his breath, as she slipped her arm into his as they walked to the building.

"I'm your wife, remember?"

Tom had to work very hard to keep his face composed until they got into the building.

Wily watched them from the corner, his face a storm cloud as he slinked down an alley and back home.


	32. Chapter 32

Emily nervously drummed her fingers on the table in the apartment's kitchen. She'd already swept it out twice, washed all the dishes, dusted every surface and scrubbed the sink. Tom looked up from the strange device he was leaning over.

"Em, this is somewhat delicate, if you wouldn't mind," he gave her dancing fingers a pointed look.

"Sorry," she moved her hands to her lap, "when will they call…" she muttered under breath absently.

"Soon I'm sure. And Sam is fine, it's just a cold they said."

"Gwen said, and she'll say whatever she needs to say to get me to do what she needs done." Emily ran her hand through her short hair. "I wish I could have talked to Al last night." She added as an afterthought.

"Maybe you two can chat tonight."

"Mmm, what I really want is to see them both, a voice on the telephone isn't the same thing…"

"Words on a page aren't either Em but I got used to it, you'll be fine."

"I'm just worried about Sam," she sighed.

" And Al." Tom said without thinking.

"And Al?"

"Well, you said you wanted to talk to him."

"Because he'd tell me the truth about Sam." She ran her hand through her hair again.

"Ah, so you're not worried about him."

"Al can take care of himself." Emily said simply. Tom raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment further.

"What are you making again?"

"It's really simple actually, the only problem is it's so small and difficult to work with-" Tom swore as the phone rang, startling him and causing his hand to come down on a tiny mechanism.

Emily jumped from her chair and scooped up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Emily, Sam's fine, we need to talk to Tom, _now._" Gwen said by means of greeting.

"Oh, can I talk to him later?"

Gwen's eyes flicked to Al who was about to leave the room. "No, he's… asleep. But you can talk to Al later."

Emily hesitated a second, not entirely certain Gwen was being honest with her, but she could count on Albert to tell her the truth later. "Alright, here's Tom."

"I'm working on it Gwen," Tom said into the phone tucking it under his ear as he continued to struggle with the tiny device.

_What's wrong with a simple hello? _Emily wondered absently wandering the apartment as Tom discussed the plan for sabotaging Wolv's weapons. As near as Emily could tell Tom was building a device which would evidently move on its own into the weapons and cut vital wires, which Emily would believe when she saw it. The thing Tom was building was so small he sometimes needed a magnifying glass to see what he was doing, and no jumble of wires and metal could move about on its own and know where to go, that she was reasonably certain of.

"Yes, we can test the navigating bit tomorrow, all right, I'll have it done Gwen," there was a brief pause, "Well how would you know, have you ever built a robot?" After another moment's pause Tom ended his conversation with Gwen, "Well neither have I, here's Em." He handed Emily the phone again then returned to his project.

Emily tucked the phone under her ear and stretched the phone cord across the kitchen as she set about making coffee for Tom who was quite obviously stressed, and swearing under his breath again.

"Sam's fine Emily, I'm sure he'll be back to normal tomorrow he just needs some sleep." Gwen said trying to dismiss the problem.

"I want to talk to Al," she insisted setting the coffee pot on the stove.

Gwen sighed and waved Albert over to the phone. "All right, here he is."

"Al?" Emily asked cautiously not sure how things stood between them at the moment. She hadn't seen him since before the episode with Tom being followed, but she was sure that she could trust him for the truth about Sam. "How are you?"

"As well as can be expected." He replied flopping into a chair near the desk while Gwen tried to organize some papers and not look like she was eavesdropping. "And you?"

"All right. It's a bit frustrating being confined to an apartment that's not mine but, if it keeps people safe, then that's what happens."

"Well it keeps Tom safe, speaking of which how is he?"

"Swearing under his breath at some bit of technology again, but otherwise… as well as can be expected."

"Ah." There was silence on the line for a moment.

"And Sam?"

Wily chewed on the inside of his cheek as he debated this next answer. He couldn't lie to her, could he? If he did and she found out she'd be livid, but she probably wouldn't, Sam would be right as rain in a few days wouldn't he? He closed his eyes and thought. Both he and Gwen knew that was a lie, Sam was sick, very sick; but Emily couldn't know. It would drive her crazy and she probably wouldn't stay in the apartment like she was supposed to. Knowing Emily she'd march across the city heedless of the fact that she was leading Wolv's men right to HQ and blowing pretty much everybody's cover. They'd talked about moving Sam back home and letting her visit him there but the doctor had said not to move him. But… Wily couldn't lie to Emily.

"Al?" Emily's voice rose in desperation, that he knew would turn into determination to do whatever it took to take care of her brother.

"He's… fine Em, just sleeping like Gwen said. I'm sure he'll be perfect in the morning."

Emily sighed relieved that Sam really was just fine. "Make sure he does his homework, and goes to school Al. Hopefully I'll be back soon and you won't have to take care of him too long."

"Anne's taking care of him, she's basically the entire group's grandmother."

"Good… good, sounds like he needs one about now."

_He needs you. _Al thought for a moment before saying, "Yeah, she'll have him up and about soon. I'll tell him you asked about him."

"And that I love him and will see him soon."

"Of course, and the same to you."

Emily smiled. "The same to you."


	33. Chapter 33

The phone rang late that night. Emily heard it from the bedroom, but Tom answered it as he was still sitting at the table trying to see what he was doing through his tired eyes.

"Hello?" Emily heard through the door as she reached for the lamp.

"She's asleep." _Not anymore__. _Emily thought as she wrapped a blanket from the bed around her before moving toward the door.

"You told her he was alright." Emily froze in the middle of the room. "Did you lie to her Albert?" A few moments passed, just long enough for every horrific possibility concerning the late phone call to come to mind. "Fine I'll get her, just a second."

Tom opened the door to see Emily staring back at him white as the sheets on the bed, her short hair tangled and her eyes wide. "Al's on the phone, he wants to talk to you."

Emily didn't move. Tom crossed the room and put a hand on each of her shoulders. "I'm sure he's fine Em…" He trailed off as Emily stared at him incredulously.

"Then why is Al calling in the middle of the night?" She asked, not letting him look away. When he didn't answer she left him there, and went to table.

"He's fine, just like Gwen said Albert?" She said after she'd picked up the phone.

"I'm sorry Em, I -"

"Albert all I want right now is to know exactly what is going on, in the simplest terms possible, and I want the truth."

"Gwen said to tell -"

"I don't want to know what Gwen said Albert, I want to know what you are going to tell me, and it'd better not be another lie." Emily interrupted.

Albert sat across the desk from Gwen and decided enough was enough. "Right. The plain and simple truth, Sam's very sick."

"Albert!" Gwen shouted loud enough that Emily heard her on the telephone.

"I can't believe I was so stupid as to believe you Albert Wily. Tell Gwen," Emily continued ignoring his attempt to interrupt her, "that I pity her son if this is how she acts when a child is sick, and that I'm coming over there now, to hell with blowing her cover."

"Gladly." Al replied.

"Don't be so sure." Emily replied hanging up the phone.

"Why Albert?" Gwen asked her head in her hands as she struggled to think of how to solve this new headache. He didn't answer as he headed upstairs to check on Sam.

* * *

Al expected Sam to be asleep when he entered the room, but instead he opened the door to see him wide awake and staring right at him. A weak smile formed on Sam's face when he saw him. Al managed to fake one, Sam really should have been asleep, it was the only remedy they had at this point. Lacking any way of getting the medicine Sam needed it had been obvious from the start that this could only end one way, but there was always that small glimmer of hope. Unfortunately reality was starting to set in and all but Sam, and until a few moments ago Emily, realized that.

"Is Emily coming back soon?" Sam asked as Al came closer to the bed and his caretaker for the moment left, grateful for a few moments break.

"Soon," Al assured him, "in the next hour I'm sure." The small smile on the boy's face grew slightly.

After a few minutes of silence Sam gathered the strength to ask another question. "Will she stay long?"

"As long as you want her to." Al answered, certain of that answer. Sam closed his eyes, happy with the promise of seeing his sister.

"I'm going to go wait for her," Al said standing, "I'll be back soon."

"Can," Sam asked, getting Al's attention just as he was going to leave, "can she read me a story?"

Al nodded, "I'll make sure she brings one."

* * *

Tom watched as Emily moved from the phone to the bedroom, muttering to herself angrily as she went. He cleared the mess of metal and wires he'd been struggling with out of sight before she reemerged, now fully dressed and still muttering. She didn't acknowledge him as he followed her out the door and to the street, but she did shrink closer to him as they crossed the city, glad for the protection he offered.

She ignored Albert completely in the entrance to HQ but continued up the stairs to Anne's apartment before realizing that if Sam was sick, he likely was not in Anne's apartment near all the kids that went in and out of there every day.

"What room is he in?" She asked Wily, acknowledging him for the first time.

"This way," he said leading her farther up the steps before trying to talk to her again. "Emily, I-"

"Not now Al." He decided not to argue.

He paused outside the entrance to the room, and handed Emily the large collection of children's stories he'd borrowed from Anne on his way down to meet Emily. "He's been asking for you to read him a story." He said simply.

Emily took the book before moving through the anteroom to Sam's bedroom and closing the door behind her, preventing Al and Tom from following her, leaving them to pace the small room occupied by two chairs and a sink with a mirror.

"Emily!" Sam's face brightened considerably at the sight of his sister. Emily tried to smile back, she didn't like what she saw. Sam was obviously very weak and wasn't going to last much longer. She struggled with the tears so he wouldn't see them.

"Al says you've wanted a story." She said sitting down near the bed as he weakly nodded his agreement.

"He's no good at stories Emily, all the characters sound the same and everything's boring when he reads."

Emily managed a small smile, "Let's fix that." She opened the book and started to read, "This was no time for play, this was no time for fun…" in a purposefully overly exasperated voice.

Sam smiled leaning back to hear the rest of the silly Seuss rhymes. Emily watched him carefully as he became more tired and less interested in the story. As she finished she held his hand.

"I'm tired Emily." He struggled to say.

"I know Sam," She said, helping him to lay down from the sitting position he'd been in to listen to the story. "Just try to sleep, you'll be better soon." She swallowed hard trying not to cry.

A few moments of silence passed as the two sat and Emily rubbed calming circles on the back of his hand.

"Read it again, please?"

"All right," She picked up the book again. She wasn't halfway through the book before his eyes closed and the pulse in the little wrist she held stopped. "Oh Sam," She sighed, and now she let the tears fall.


	34. Chapter 34

A few minutes later Emily picked up the book and left the room. Her shell-shocked appearance and the tears still on her face told all. "Emily," Al started, moving to hug her.

Emily held up her hands, rejecting the comfort, but saying nothing. She moved to the sink and splashed some water on her face before looking up and noticing the mirror. She stared at her reflection for a moment before releasing a muffled scream and launching the book at the mirror, shattering it. "Why?" She screamed at the shards, then she looked up with tears falling again. "Why?" She asked in a broken voice.

Both Al and Tom tried to calm her but she pushed past them into the hallway. She ignored all in her path and the two following her down the stairs back to the entrance. She wasn't sure where she was going as she headed toward the door, all she knew was that she wanted to get _out_.

Joseph stood in front of the door, waiting for her to come. She tried to push past him and get outside but he wouldn't let her. He caught her and pulled her in, not letting her get away.

"Breathe Emily, breathe. Calm down …" He held her there, waiting for her to stop struggling. Eventually the only movement fighting him was the sobs that shook her whole body. "Breathe, calm down…" He led her back past Al and Tom, who had watched the whole scene from the stairwell, up the stairs to a small bedroom. "Calm down." He continued, gently forcing her to sit in a chair near the bed. He crouched down to meet her eyes.

She was in complete shut-down mode, he could tell. She wouldn't look at his face but was fixated on the foot of the bed, but she wasn't even looking at that, she was looking past it, seeing who knows what. Her body was stiff, with her arms close to her sides as if she was trying to maintain control by making herself more compact.

"Stay here," he said, putting a hand on her cheek to make sure he had her attention. She was startled by the touch and stared back at him with wide eyes. "Stay here," he repeated. "Calm down, you can go home in the morning."

She didn't answer, she just moved her focus from his face to the wall above the bed.

She was still like that when Al came in a few minutes later.

"Emily," he started as he came into the room. When she didn't react he sat on the bed directly in her line of vision. She didn't move but continued to stare, now at his shoulder instead of the wall.

"Emily?" He asked in a more hushed tone, reaching for her hand.

Now she reacted. She turned away from him, focusing on the door instead of the bed.

"You're angry with me. Emily, right now is anger really the first thing on your mind?"

She didn't answer.

"You're brother just died and you're holding a grudge!"

"Please Al," She said putting her face in her hands, but still not looking at him.

"Emily," he said, moving off the bed into much the same position Joseph had held earlier, "I want to help you."

She turned to look at him now. "Albert, I don't want any help right now."

His face went hard. Emily moved her focus away from him again. He stood up and left the room without a word.

Over the course of the next half hour Emily moved from sitting in the chair, to pacing, to sitting on the bed. When Tom came in she was curled up in a ball, leaning sideways against the wall.

He didn't say anything. He knew from Albert she wasn't going to talk to anyone. Albert had been very vocal in his opinion that Tom was wasting his time even going into the room. But, Tom had decided, he couldn't not visit her now either.

He sat on the end of the bed, facing her. He could see the tear tracks down her face and how absolutely exhausted she was. After a few minutes she glanced up at him, letting their eyes meet for a moment before focusing on the wall again.

A few more minutes passed before she said in a hoarse whisper, "He's gone Tom."

"I know."

She focused on him again for a moment. "Every single member of my family is gone." She leaned away from the wall and put her head down between her knees, her arms crossed across the tops of them.

"I'm sorry." Tom answered, placing a hand on one of hers. She picked up her head and put her other hand on top of his.

"How do you keep going?" She asked crawling closer to him. They both sat on the edge of the bed now. Tom wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his shoulder.

"I'm not sure. Once you're the only one left, sometimes the only thing that says life keeps going is the sun coming up and going down.

"You'll keep going Emily. You'll be hurt and never want to get up again. But you'll always keep going."


	35. Chapter 35

Ch. 36

Emily and Tom returned to the apartment the next day. Tom let Emily be, when she wanted to talk he'd be there, for now he'd let her recover in her own way, in her own time. While Tom came and went, meeting Gwen and other members of Joseph's group around the city, Emily sat silent in the bedroom, or at the table examining whatever seemed to be in front of her. When she was asleep he called HQ, never mentioning Gwen or Al when she could be listening. More than once Al called asking for her. Tom simply told him she wasn't talking at all. He insisted, once, that Tom hand her the phone and let him at least talk to her, even if she wouldn't answer him. Tom handed her the phone, she looked from him to phone for a moment before putting it to her ear. Tom didn't know what Al said, he only knew Emily didn't answer, and a few moments later she stood, crossed the kitchen to put the phone back on its hook on the wall, and went into the bedroom.

Tom was sitting at the table working, as usual, on the tiny mechanisms of what had been nicknamed the bug when she finally emerged. For the past… he'd lost count of how many days, it had been up to Tom to ensure that Emily ate, he couldn't force her to sleep, and he knew she'd stayed awake for days on end. Emily hadn't taken any initiative in cooking or tending the house, and Tom had learned very quickly how to cook something beyond a sandwich. As he sat there, she crossed the room and began to make a pot of coffee. A few minutes later she came over carrying two cups, and handed one to him as she sat down. He pushed the project away from him to focus on her.

"The only thing that says life keeps going is the sun going up and down?" she asked.

"It seems like it sometimes,"

"It seems like it a lot of the time Thomas Light."

"But sometimes?"

She sighed, "Sometimes, there is more to life and those times, well they're worth working through the other times aren't they?"

"I certainly think so, and you know that eventually, those times will outweigh the worse moments like they did before."

Emily looked down to her coffee and held the cup very tightly, "I hope so."

"Well that's all you need."

Emily gave him a questioning look.

"Hope."

She nodded slightly to show she understood as she set down her cup and rubbed her eyes. "I'm so tired."

"Take a nap, you'll feel better, and it will be easier to think."

She nodded again, drained the coffee cup and stood to place the cup near the sink. Tom followed suit, and before she returned to the bedroom stopped her with a hug. "You'll get there Em."

"Thanks Tom."

* * *

Emily sat by the window of the bedroom watching nothing go by, like yesterday. Nothing had gone past then, and from the looks of things nothing would go by today either. Nothing, nothing… nothing. She heard Tom swear from the next room. She glanced at the clock, he'd gone a whole ten minutes without swearing that time, a new record. Sam had been learning to tell time…

She turned back to memorizing the building in across the street, pushing the memories and the pain that came with them away. "No," she said forcefully, pushing her thoughts back where she wanted them.

Tom looked up at the sound of Emily's voice. Frustrated with his work, and worried about the possibility of her starting to talk to herself, he ventured into the bedroom and her musings without invitation for the first time since they'd gotten back from HQ.

"Emily?" He asked as he came toward the window to stand behind her chair. "Everything alright?"

She nodded, and leaned on the window with her elbows, trying to move back into a state of not concentrating, and therefore not thinking about Sam.

"What are you watching?" He asked curiously.

"Nothing."

"Ok… What are you thinking about?"

"Anything, just not…" She grimaced as she attempted to force her thoughts into obedience again.

"Ah," silence reigned for a few minutes as Tom found another chair and sat down next to her. "You know you'll have to think about him eventually don't you? It's the only way forward."

"I know," she paused for a moment, "I just don't want to."

"You'll get there, it's better to take time and deal with… this," he said, searching for the right word, "then to push it aside and ignore it."

"You dealt with your dad, and then your mom… so quickly."

"No."

"No?"

"It seemed like that, yes. But…" he sighed. "A lot of it is what happens in your head, how you react to things that seem normal, but to you, you think a lot more about them. And, a lot of it is acting, carrying on and letting life carry you along as you try to keep up and catch what you lost at the same time."

"But you can't." Emily said pushing back her tears. "You can't catch what you lost, it's gone, life with... them, it's gone."

Tom nodded. "And eventually," he sighed, "you learn how to hold on to some of it, and live without the rest."

"How?" Emily asked, her voice showing her distress.

"Slowly. One thing at a time."

Emily bit her lip and leaned away from the window. Tom watched as the tears slowly started to roll down her face as she allowed the memories she'd been shutting away to come. He put an arm around her and let her leave it to him to support her. They sat like that for a long time. Sometimes Emily would tell Tom about the memories she was thinking about, sometimes they just sat in silence. The phone rang twice, but they ignored it. The shadows on the buildings moved as the day went on and nothing passed by, until a black car pulled around the corner, and stopped in front of the building.


	36. Chapter 36

Wily stepped out of the car, and immediately began searching the windows for signs of trouble.

"Looks normal," he commented to Joseph as he climbed out of the driver's seat.

He snorted, "does anything in this city look normal?"

"Well," Wily responded shrugging, "could be worse."

"I'll give you that. Let's go find out why they're not answering the phone shall we?"

Tom and Emily watched the car approach. When Wily stepped out of the car Tom felt Emily stiffen.

"Emily?"

"I don't want to talk to him." She said carefully.

"He won't let that happen."

"No he won't." She took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. "Fine."

When Wily and Joe reached the apartment they expected it to be deserted, why else would nobody be answering the phone? What they didn't expect to find was Emily making a pot of coffee and Tom putting various mechanical parts away in a cupboard.

Emily turned toward Wily, thinking she was ready for wherever this confrontation might go, and to give him a piece of her mind as well. But when he was there, actually there standing in front of her, after… after… Her resolve broke and she turned on her heel, marched into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Both and Joe and Tom gave Wily a look with eyebrows raised. He cleared his throat in an attempt to fill the silence, before crossing the kitchen and following Emily into the bedroom.

Tom turned to Joe, "Coffee?"

Joe took the cup from him and nodded toward the door, "how's she doing? I knew she'd have an issue with him, but that was worse than I expected."

"Well, the reason we didn't answer the phone..."

* * *

"Emily?" Al asked as he closed the door behind him. She stood facing the window, arms crossed. The chairs had been moved to sit on either side of the window and she leaned forward to press her forehead against the cool glass.

"What?" Her voice made it very clear she did not want to talk.

"Tom told me you weren't talking."

"That was correct."

"But now?"

"It seems I don't have a choice." She shot him a glare over her shoulder before moving to sit in a chair, facing him.

Al awkwardly sat in the opposite chair, not sure what he should do. After a few seconds he stood up again and turned to look out the window.

"I see you're moving up in the world. I don't think I've seen a car like that since… well I was little. Most of the ones around now are clunkers." Emily commented, ending the oppressive silence.

He nodded in agreement. "It's Joe's, he's kept it in shape since he never knows when he'll need to move quickly."

"Enjoy the ride over?" Emily asked.

Al didn't notice the steel in her voice, he nodded silently.

"And the rest of the rewards for doing exactly what they want?"

Wily turned to look at Emily now. Her arms were no longer crossed and she gripped the arms of the chair so hard her knuckles were turning white. Her head was cocked to the side as she watched him with one eyebrow raised and she looked downright dangerous.

"Emily, I didn't want to lie to you, but it kept people safe –"

She didn't let him finish. "You didn't want to? Didn't want to? Albert Wily, I know you are the most stubborn person alive, but when Gwen told you to lie and you _didn't want to _somehow you managed _–"_

"Is this about Gwen? Emily, of all things –"

She was on her feet now. "NO! This is not about Gwen? Should it be? I was under the impression this was about you LYING to me but if this is about Gwen too–"

"It's not–"

"You told me he was alright, and then not even the next day you–"

"I didn't want you to come across the city when–"

"WHEN MY BROTHER WAS DYING ALBERT WILY?"

"You would have blown everything just for Sam –"

"For the only family I had left! You think that isn't worth something Albert? You've lost everyone. You know what it's like! Or at least I thought you did, but Tom's been more help and he's been gone for three years, just got back –"

"So you and Tom are doing just fine without me, I get it I'll just get out of your way –" He opened the door and marched across the kitchen, Emily following and yelling after him.

"You lied to me Albert, don't you think I'd rather get over my brother's death away from the _friend _who lied to me about him being fine?"

"Emily," Tom tried to interrupt, and get between the two, but was thwarted by Emily pushing her way around him.

Wily spun around to face her so they were now yelling across the kitchen with Tom and Joe, who was still sitting at the table, between them. "To protect you Emily, if you'd left here then –"

"To protect me? Protect me?" She repeated, absolutely disgusted. "From what? The distress of my brother's sickness?"

"Emily, please –" Tom's attempt to calm Emily was completely lost in the anger that was spilling out of her.

"Oh, brilliant job, that went very well don't you think? It has been much easier to cope with my brother's death knowing that my dear friend Albert Wily lied to me to PROTECT ME." She was yelling at his retreating back by the time she finished. Joe nodded at Tom as he set the coffee cup by the sink and followed him out, closing the door behind him.

Tom slowly put the robot, which he'd been showing Joseph, away and finished his coffee, watching Emily out of the corner of his eye the whole time as she stared at the closed door, still fuming. After a few minutes she turned and retreated to the bedroom, closing the door loudly as she went. When he dared peek into the room she was sitting and staring out the window again, arms crossed and glowering. He mumbled something about going for groceries, which she didn't respond to, and headed out_. _ On the street below their window there was evidence of something smashed, as if hurled toward the ground from a decent height, some plastic shaped like the teeth of a comb and a metal spring, which Tom scooped up thinking it might be useful in the robot.


	37. Chapter 37

Wily sat trying to listen to Joseph go over some of the finer details of the plan that was now imminent with the completion of the bug, but he was less listening and more mulling over his conversation with Gwen. Emily would calm down eventually, he decided, Gwen was right about that, but what happened after she started speaking to him again, that was more worrisome. Given her reaction to him, what was it? Two weeks ago now, he wouldn't need to worry about that for a while, if the stony silence that had been maintained was anything to go by.

"Tom needs these plans so he can do some fine tuning of the bug's program. Al, could you deliver them to him?"

Al nodded, conscious of the looks some members of the meeting were giving him. News of Emily's tirade against him had traveled quickly, and this would be the first time he and Emily would be face to face since then.

Emily and Tom did not talk about the fight. When Tom returned that night Emily carried on as if nothing had happened. She resumed her normal patterns of keeping the apartment spotless, for lack of something better to do, and cooking, for which Tom was very grateful. She marveled that the bug did indeed move on its own at Tom's direction, and assisted Tom however she could. When Al asked for her on the phone the only words she said to him would be: "Thank you Albert, Good night." before hanging up the phone each time, no matter what he said. Eventually, Al stopped calling.

The knock on the door did not startle either Emily or Tom, messages and materials were being ferried in and out every day, such that Emily kept a pot of coffee ready for the messengers who came in with red noses and cold fingers thanks to the impending winter. Tom looked up from testing the bug's ability to perform a task, namely cut wires, while monitoring the area as Emily answered the door. Once the door was open they both froze. Emily turned on her heel and returned to her task of scrubbing the sink, refusing to even announce who was here.

Tom crossed the room to Al, who had stepped in without invitation once it was clear one wasn't going to be issued.

"These are from Joseph," he said quietly, handing the plans to Tom and attempting to ignore the loud silence coming from Emily.

Tom took them, "Coffee?" he asked gesturing toward the table.

Wily shot Emily a look, she had her back to him, "sure." He moved toward the table while Tom got the coffee.

Tom ignored the glare Emily gave him as he collected two cups of coffee, he was a mutual friend in this scenario. He had to be friendly toward both of them, even if he did agree with… he pushed the doubts about the scenario aside, Emily could live with it.

"Have you left the house then?" Tom asked handing Al his coffee while he attempted to make small talk. "Living at headquarters?"

"I've spent more time there than anywhere else, it made sense."

Tom nodded and an awkward silence fell. He cleared his throat and tried again. "What does Joseph have you doing then?"

"Messages mostly, whatever he doesn't have the time to attend to. Tom…" he began, not certain he wanted to ask the question, but he knew it would come up sooner than later. "What do you plan to do when all this is over?"

Emily turned from the sink to watch as Tom answered.

"I, I haven't really thought that far, I just want to get through this, preferably alive." Al nodded slightly, but Tom knew he wasn't satisfied with the answer. "I guess I'll see where I stand after, eventually I think I'll go back north, there's still a lot I can learn, I've only scratched the surface with this." He gestured toward the bug.

"Scratched the surface?" Al asked skeptically, "That's impressive Tom, don't sell yourself short."

"Here yes, everything's impressive, I'm a miracle worker. But… but that's not right. I shouldn't be, you should already have this technology and be thinking bigger."

"Bigger," Al said, still skeptical.

Tom set his coffee down and leaned in trying to convey his excitement about the ideas no one in this city could possibly understand having never been outside its limits.

"Imagine, this," he gestured toward the bug, "a robot, but not a little one with only one purpose, that only knows it's programming, and can't learn. Imagine a robot that's as big as a man," he stood to emphasize his point, "one that can do everything a man can do, one that can learn, but it can do more too. It can work in a mine," he gestured in the general direction of the mines, "and not worry about needing oxygen because it doesn't breathe, it's a machine. It takes a great deal to harm it, because it's stronger than you or I and it can work longer. All these things men try to do in this city, just to survive, and fail at… it can do, its hands are made of iron, it can deal with this… this hell."

The kitchen was quiet for a minute. Wily's face was no longer skeptical, but contemplative, he was thinking, thinking hard, about what Tom had proposed. After another minute he spoke, "well Tom, the whole point of this," he pointed back at the tiny, apparently trivial, robot on the table, "is to end this hell as you call it."

"I know, once this is done, there'll be a lot of work," he sat down as he repeated himself, "a lot of improving to be done. There are things I can learn in the other city and bring back to help with that."

Wily nodded as silence fell again. Emily turned back to the sink as the two men finished their coffee.

"Joseph wants to go ahead with this next week, do you think you'll be ready then?" Wily asked as he stood to leave.

Tom glanced at the plans and nodded, "we should be running a final test by Monday."

Wily nodded, "excellent," he said, and headed back out the door.


	38. Chapter 38

Emily watched in amazement as the bug scuttled across the floor and into the crude model of the weapon it would need to disable. Tom had given Joseph a basic description of what the bug would need to deal with so they could run some trials to test the bugs ability to operate in a small space, monitor its surroundings, and Tom's ability to control it with only the information the bug would be sending back.

Besides being mobile, the bug had very basic functions considering it was essentially a collection of radio parts and various scraps. Lacking a way of broadcasting a visual signal, Tom had contrived a method of controlling it via radio signals. The bug collected basic information about its surroundings by emitting a sound wave not audible to the human ear through a modified speaker and analyzing the way it bounced back, much like a bat's echolocation. This information was radioed back to Tom in the form of a code that no one else really understood nor bothered asking about after Tom's first attempt at explaining it. Essentially the bug was telling Tom the location of various objects by relating their location to its as if it stood on a grid. Using that information Tom sent signals back to the bug directing it's movements using bits of computer his uncle had removed from remote control toys that were nonexistent here. His aunt had sewn them into the lining of a pair of gloves and mailed them to him to escape Wolv's notice. In addition to all this the bug was equipped with wire cutters, a screw driver , and a short pole for pushing things out of its way.

At first it had been difficult for Tom to even navigate around the kitchen based on the information the bug relayed back, but as he'd become accustomed to the code the bug spoke and creating a picture of the bugs surroundings without having to draw it out he'd mastered getting the bug in and out of the model of both the weapons Joseph wanted to disable and the security and communications systems in the Capitol.

Emily glanced at the clock, timing how long it took Tom to get the bug into the model, cut the string representing the wire they knew would render the weapon useless, and get the bug back out of the model.

"Five minutes seventeen seconds,"she told him as he came out of the bedroom and put the bug away.

He nodded, "That's better. I think we'll be ready to go tomorrow."

Emily nodded quietly as all the possible outcomes of tomorrow ran through her head.

"Do you know where Al is going to be tomorrow?" she asked quietly, saying his name for the first time in weeks.

"With Joseph I believe." Tom said sitting down on the small couch in the corner of the kitchen, thoroughly exhausted. It had been a long week of working to perfect his control of the bug and coordinating plans for the next day.

"And you'll be safe here," she said quietly joining him.

"Al knows how to take care of himself Em, he'll be fine wherever Joseph puts him."

"They'll be in the Capitol itself correct?"

Tom nodded.

"Then he'd better be able to take care of himself."

Tom shrugged. "You can only worry about so many things. I'll concentrate on the bug and hope everything else works out."

They sat quietly for a while both knowing that, despite Tom's words, they'd worry about the outcome until whatever happened tomorrow was over.

"Do we have any idea what we're getting ourselves into Tom?" Emily asked as she leaned back and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Probably not, but we can't really change our minds now." They sat, thinking about the next day, until Emily stood to make dinner and life went on.


	39. Chapter 39

**notes: **sorry about not updating last week, this chapter wasn't quite the way I wanted it + I had graduation. Feedback on the technicalities of this chapter is appreciated!

Gwen quietly excused herself from the council's meeting about ten after nine the next morning without drawing attention. Once down the hall and around the corner she pulled the small contraption Tom had given her that morning out of her purse and searched for the appropriate switch. Once it started to scuttle down the hall she left the building without speaking to anyone.

* * *

Despite watching the controls on the table for the past half hour Emily still jumped when they came to life and started beeping out a signal. Tom responded quickly, putting together the individual pieces of information the bug sent to him to create a picture of where it was. Emily sat down across the table from him with the plans of the Capitol and the controls on the table between them. She placed a coffee bean they'd be using to mark the bug's location in the hall where Gwen had said she'd place it.

"North to security?" He asked Emily, confirming their route.

She nodded and started pushing the bean across the paper. Tom carefully navigated toward the Capitol's security headquarters. "Ok, where's the vent we want?"

"To the left of the door. A few feet." Emily slid the bean a few inches.

"There it is. All right let's get the cover off."

* * *

The bug approached the vent cover slowly. Once it was a few inches away from the wall the small screwdriver Tom had attached to it rose to just below the height of the screw holding the vent cover to the wall and then began to close the gap between it and the vent cover, hitting the vent cover just below the screw.

* * *

Tom swore under his breath.

"What?" Emily asked, concerned.

"I've never attempted unscrewing a vent when I'm looking at it from below. It's a slightly different perspective." Emily didn't respond as Tom tried again, this time raising the screwdriver higher than he thought it needed to be.

"Got it."

Emily consulted the map, "the vent into the security room is in the floor, you need to go down about half a foot." Tom navigated the bug into a position inside the vent, finding purchase in the tiny overlap of sections of vent, taking advantage of the bug's size.

"Should we cover the vent again?" Emily asked.

"If anyone notices they'll probably assume some sort of repair is taking place, no one questions things like that." Tom slowly moved the bug down the vent, and then into the length of vent leading away from the shaft and leading under the floor of the security room. "What is right next to the vent?"

"There's a monitor directly to its left, the door a few feet to the right, anyone in the room will be looking at the monitor's along the wall to the left of the vent and across from it."

"The panel we need?"

"In the monitor to your left. If you can get behind it you'll be able to access it. I'm not sure how much room it between the monitor and the wall though. Otherwise you can access it from the side."

Tom nodded and directed the bug to push on the underside of the vent and slide it to the side. Then it scuttled down the vent out of sight to wait for any reaction that was coming. When nothing happened Tom moved the bug out of the vent and into the small space between the wall and the monitor.

"Ok, we're in the room." Emily nodded and moved the coffee bean through the line denoting a wall and into the security room before pulling out a different set of plans and laying them out on the table.

"The wires we want to cut are about 2 feet up and near the right side of the monitor, looking at it from the front, so your left." Tom nodded his understanding and started sending more instructions to the bug.

* * *

The bug moved across the floor behind the monitor climbing over jumbles of wires. Slowly it began climbing, pushing the tips of its thin, spindly legs into the drywall for leverage on one side and finding small cracks between panels on the back of the monitor on the other side. When it was about two feet up it moved the screwdriver toward a panel in the back of the monitor. Once one side was loose the screwdriver pushed the panel out of the way leaving it hanging on the other screw. Now the bug's wire cutters approached the jumble of cords and cables within the monitor and hesitated. The screwdriver pushed a few out of the way so the wire cutters could reach in and cut the critical wires. Then quickly the screwdriver pushed the panel back in place, gave the screw a few twists to hold the panel there, but not secure it and the bug slid back down to the floor. Less than a minute later it was in the shaft and had pushed the vent back in place behind it.

* * *

"Call Gwen, tell her security is gone, we're heading to the telephone cable next."

Emily nodded and crossed the room. She relayed the message as Tom moved the bug through the vents.

* * *

The two men in the security room spent a few seconds debating who had to carry the news of the security failure to their superior after recovering from the initial shock of having the security monitors black out. It wasn't their superior officer they were particularly frightened of, it was the threat of having to bring the news to the Mayor that scared them, because no one would bring bad news to the Mayor when they could send someone else.

Which was why Anderson was now entering the Mayor's office, after a brief telephone conversation with his superior, which had been cut off half way through. Evidently security wasn't the only system malfunctioning.

* * *

Wily watched Joseph carefully as the listened to Gwen's report, the Capitol's security and telephone were disabled, and Wolv had doubled the amount of security men on duty in the Capitol, as well as on the streets. Joseph was already at a disadvantage when it came to numbers when Wolv had minimal men on duty.

"We can't make any mistakes," Joseph said, glancing around at the group of men who'd be infiltrating the Capitol and who'd just heard the report. "There's no room for mistakes. Think, and stay focused." They all nodded. "Let's go."


End file.
